Articles | Volume 44, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/jm-44-79-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/jm-44-79-2025
Review article
 | 
20 Mar 2025
Review article |  | 20 Mar 2025

Recent benthic foraminifera communities offshore of Thwaites Glacier in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica: implications for interpretations of fossil assemblages

Asmara A. Lehrmann, Rebecca L. Totten, Julia S. Wellner, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Svetlana Radionovskaya, R. Michael Comas, Robert D. Larter, Alastair G. C. Graham, James D. Kirkham, Kelly A. Hogan, Victoria Fitzgerald, Rachel W. Clark, Becky Hopkins, Allison P. Lepp, Elaine Mawbey, Rosemary V. Smyth, Lauren E. Miller, James A. Smith, and Frank O. Nitsche

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Cited articles

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Short summary
Thwaites Glacier's retreat is driven by warm ocean water melting its ice shelf. Seafloor-dwelling marine protists, benthic foraminifera, reflect their environment. Here, ice margins, oceanography, and sea ice cover control live foraminiferal populations. Including dead foraminifera in the analyses shows the calcareous test preservation's role in the assemblage make-up. Understanding these modern communities helps interpret past glacial retreat controls through foraminifera in sediment records.

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