Benthic foraminifera were investigated in the standard section for the white Chalk of NW Germany, Lägerdorf/Holstein, ranging from middle Coniacian to lower Maastrichtian. Several differences were found between observed stratigraphic ranges of index species and previous literature data. Consequently a new biozonation was established based on benthic foraminifera. Index species include classical marker species as well as species formerly classified as additional faunal elements. The new zonation combines 20 foraminifera-zones which are accurately related to the macrofossil faunal-zones and allows a better calibration of microfossil ranges. While many first and last appearance data of benthic index foraminifera are nearly isochronous within the NW German Basin or adjacent basins, some of the species are slightly time transgressive. To quantity the development and changes in foraminiferal faunal composition over the long time interval covered by the Lägerdorf-section, innovation-rates (new appearing species per million years) were calculated. Significant peaks with up to 25.5 new species per million years are observed in the lower part of the Upper-Santonian, in the uppermost Lower-Campanian and the uppermost Upper-Campanian. These peaks are coincident with the major regressions in the upper part of the Upper-Cretaceous. They also proof correlations to changes in the macrofossil assemblages. Reactions of benthic foraminifera in relation to sea level fluctuations are discussed.
The data for the paleoenvironmental study was obtained on the basis of complex analysis of short sediment cores retrieved in the Arcona, Bornholm, and Gdansk Basins of the Baltic Sea. The cores were collected using a short gravity sediment corer (Niemistö type). The upper layers (0-5 cm) of sediment cores were stained with the 80% ethanol solution of rose Bengal following the protocol (Schönfeld et al., 2012, doi:10.1016/j.marmicro.2012.06.001) and were used only for the microfossil analysis. The rests of the cores (below the 5 cm) were continuously sampled with the 1 cm step and were used for the loss on ignition (LOI), microfossil, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and grain-size analyzes. For the micropaleontological analysis the samples were sieved through >63 μm mesh using tap water. Benthic foraminifera shells and inner organic linings were counted in a wet state following the (Brodniewicz, 1965; Binczewska et al., 2018, doi:10.1111/bor.12267).
This data collection contains new observations of sediment color, mineral‑geochemical properties, and benthic foraminiferal stable isotopes that characterise "green bands" in Quaternary marine sediments and evaluate their value as markers of deep‑ocean ventilation changes. Parameters reported include (i) benthic foraminifera δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C (species Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi and Uvigerina spp.), (ii) down‑core colour information extracted from high‑resolution digital core photographs, expressed as green‑pixel percentages for a set of hue–saturation–value (HSV) bins, (iii) X‑ray‑fluorescence (XRF) core‑scan elemental ratios (e.g. Fe/Ti, Si/Al), (iv) pyrite counts in >63 µm coarse fractions, and (v) ancillary site‑characterisation variables such as sedimentation rate, bulk CaCO₃, organic‑carbon content, bottom‑water [O₂], and satellite‑derived export productivity.
Sediments span 0–1.2 Ma for Site U1474 and Site U1313, with depth/age tie points listed in Tables S2. Primary data derive from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Sites U1474 (Southwest Indian Ocean; 31°13.00′S, 31°32.71′E, 3045 below sea level) and (North Atlantic; 41°0.068'N, 32°57.439'W, 3412 meters below sea level). The accompanying global survey (Table 3) covers observations from the first core of 2122 holes collected since the inception of the Deep Sea Drilling Program, covering all major ocean basins. Green colour banding has been linked to redox fronts associated with bottom‑water ventilation; quantifying its stratigraphic occurrence may provide an easily transferable proxy for past oxygenation. The dataset supports tests of that hypothesis and enables reuse in broader studies of sediment diagenesis, colour imaging, and benthic δ¹³C. Benthic foraminiferal δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C were measured on Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi and Uvigerina peregrina picked at 12 cm (≈ 3 kyr) intervals from the >150 µm fraction of 400 samples down to 48 m at IODP Site U1474. Analyses used a Thermo Finnigan MAT 253 IRMS coupled to a Kiel IV carbonate device at Cardiff University; long‑term external precision is ±0.05 ‰ for δ¹⁸O and ±0.021 ‰ for δ¹³C (1 σ) and results are reported relative to VPDB after calibration to internal standard BCT63 and application of standard vital‑effect offsets (+0.64 ‰ for Cibicidoides, 0 ‰ for Uvigerina). A Site U1474 δ¹⁸O stack was generated by averaging species‑specific values and tuning the composite record to the LR04 stack for age control. To assess the spatial occurrence of colour banding, we screened 2 121 split‑core photographs (first 1.5 m of piston cores) from all IODP expeditions via Texas A&M's LIMS archive, noting the depth (< 40 cm or > 40 cm) and character of oxidative colour transitions. Environmental parameters (bottom‑water O₂, export productivity, sedimentation rate, bulk CaCO₃, organic C) were extracted from published global grids and compared with banding frequency. For Sites U1474 and U1313, relic green bands were mapped with a computer‑vision workflow in Python. Split‑core images (native resolution ≈ 50 µm px⁻¹) were analysed with OpenCV's inRange filter: HSV colour space (H 0–360, S/V 0–100) was divided into 3 600 ten‑unit cubes, narrowed to 627 sediment‑relevant hues guided by Munsell chips, and the 20 most selective "green" cubes were retained. Summed depth‑series ("green‑pixel %") were smoothed and peaks delineated with SciPy's prominence‑based algorithm (prominence 9/7, distance 1/10 points for U1474/U1313), then manually quality‑controlled. Sand layers identified from core photographs and Si/Al XRF scans (Avaatech, 30 kV, 200 µA, 10 s, 2 mm beam) were masked before colour analysis. Finally, a 14‑site global benthic δ¹³C stack was compiled by standardising, 5 ka‑smoothing, and averaging published depth‑age–resolved records (Atlantic, Indian, Pacific basins) together with the new U1474 data.
Here, the Cd/Ca and Pb/Ca ratios in the two benthic foraminifera species Elphidium excavatum and Ammonia tepida are presented in order to assess the impact of enhanced anthropogenic heavy metal input in historical times on these foraminifera. The foraminifera shells were picked from sediment core GeoB 4801-1, that was collected from the Helgoland mud area, German Bight, southern North Sea, during RV Meteor cruise M40/0. The obtained elemental records span the last ~300 years (for the stratigraphy of this core see Boxberg et al. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-019-00592-0). Element compositions were obtained by ICP-MS at the MARUM, Bremen.