Provenance of recycled palynomorph assemblages recovered from surficial glaciomarine sediments in Bransfield Strait, offshore Antarctic Peninsula

Glaciomarine surficial sediments in cores taken from Bransfield Strait, adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula, have yielded abundant recycled and contemporaneous (Pleistocene–Holocene) palynomorphs. The former are derived principally from Late Cretaceous–Palaeogene sediments and provide information on glaciomarine depositional conditions and sediment source areas. The composition of the assemblages suggests that they reflect vegetation that was endemic to the Weddellian Biogeographic Province, which includes what is now Seymour Island, James Ross Island and other parts of the Antarctic Peninsula region. The sediments concerned are considered to have accumulated as a result of ice-rafting and discharge of subglacial meltwater.