M20AS00218_SOW_MICROFOSSIL_WORK (1).docx

Mini SOW for Alabama Coop:

Dr. Rebecca Minzoni will conduct a microfossil assemblage analysis to reconstruct past environments and help predict sand distribution offshore Mississippi as part of the Gulf Sand Resources project. Dr. Minzoni will extract and analyze microfossils from a selection of the 35 vibracores that were collected by Dr. Davin Wallace at USM (USM-BOEM COOP). Dr. Minzoni will supervise a graduate student and/or a research associate to pick, identify, and statistically analyze the assemblages and how they change spatially and temporally to reconstruct coastal evolution.

The proposed outcomes include:

1. Microfossil assemblages in selected cores (~10) that sample the range of depositional environments and their distribution from the Pleistocene to present across the paleo-valleys and paleo-bays offshore Mississippi

2. Environmental interpretations from the microfossil associations, including depositional environments, with more detail of salinity, temperature, and oxygenation of the water column at the time of deposition. These parameters, in addition to diversity and abundance, will help develop a detailed sequence stratigraphic framework for targeting high quality sand

3. Enhanced ability to radiocarbon date sediment cores using calcareous microfossils

4. Coordinated effort with the MS BOEM COOP (Davin Wallace - USM) to characterize spatial and temporal variability of environments with focus on sand-rich environments of deposition, and the quality and distribution of sand