Pollen and spores can give indications of terrestrial climatic conditions and run off. For this purpose sites 1170 and 1171 were selected. Hole 1170D and 1171C and 1171D reached Eocene depths, thus will be used in present study. In this research an attempt will be made to distinguish between endemic, Antarctic species and cosmopolitan species. They are presumed to indicate cold water conditions.
Cosmopolitan taxa indicate warmer water and thus the influence of warm water currents.
Preliminary on board dinoflagellate studies indicate an increase of endemic species during the Eocene. Diversity is relatively high. The influence of warm-water currents from the Indian and Pacific Ocean seems to be decreasing. The glauconitic siltstone contains low diversity dinocyst assemblages of endemic species. This indicates cold water conditions.