precessional forcing of coccolithophore assemblages in the northern arabian sea implications for monsoonal dynamics during the last 200 000 years abstract the paleoceanographic potential of coccolithophores was used to decipher the monsoon induced paleoproductivity changes in the northern arabian sea during the past 200 000 years core so 90 94 kl was taken in the north eastern part of the study area representing the primarily ne monsoon influenced domain for comparison core odp117 723 a from the western side of the arabian sea off oman under the dominating influence of the sw monsoon was investigated samples were prepared using a quantitative dilution filtering technique and investigated in the sem we focus here only on the most important contributors to the assemblages gephyrocapsa oceanica gephyrocapsa ericsonii emiliania huxleyi florisphaera profunda contributing at least 63 up to 92 5 of the coccolith assemblages abundances of the two species e huxleyi and g ericsonii were summed up and depicted as a combined record ehuxgeric the 200 000 year record from the north eastern arabian sea yielded a significant precession derived signal in the abundances of ehuxgeric which could be related by cross spectral analysis to maximum low latitudinal insolation in contrast g oceanica seemed to correspond to insolation minima relative abundances of f profunda are generally rather low compared to other oceanographic regions and exhibit no distinct variations except for the thermal maxima of isotope stages ii i and v a schematic model is presented to show the changes in surface water stratification in the arabian sea driven by changing monsoon intensities over periodicities of the precessional band of milankovitch cycles this model is based on the variations of the two taxa groups g oceanica and ehuxgeric together with changes in the abundance of cocco total and f profunda probably the arabian sea remained eutrophic at least during one season of the year despite drastic changes in the summer monsoon strength lower productivities during the summer monsoon were probably compensated by higher phytoplankton growth due to stronger winter monsoons

monsoon fluctuations in two 20 000 yr b p oxygen isotope pollen records off southwest india abstract two marine pollen diagrams for sediments off the southwest coast of india provide a 20 000 yr history of the nearby continental vegetation determined by the monsoon climate within the framework of the isotopic stratigraphy two important phases of the evolution of the monsoon climate are a very arid period about 22 000 18 000 yr b p and a very humid period culminating at 11 000 yr b p the very arid period corresponds to the lowest pollen representation of mangrove vegetation which is used here as an indirect indicator of monsoonal runoff this aridity is due to a very weak southwest airflow a great reduction of summer monsoonal rainfall and reduced runoff of the western ghats rivers the extension of the monsoon over india after the last glacial maximum has been a gradual process following the northward progression of the intertropical convergene zone the very humid period corresponding to the highest pollen representation of mangrove vegetation and the heaviest summer rainfall is a climatic response to the maximum summer insolation of the northern hemisphere at 11 000 yr b p

the influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on climate simulations for the past 18 000 years abstract general circulation model experiments at 3000 year intervals for the past 18 000 years were made to estimate the magnitude timing and pattern of the climatic response to prescribed changes of orbital parameters date of perihelion axial tilt eccentricity and glacial age lower boundary conditions ice sheets land albedo sea ice and sea surface temperature the experiments used the community climate model ccm of the national center for atmospheric research ncar the response of monsoon circulations and tropical precipitation to the orbitally produced solar radiation changes was much larger than the response to changes of glacial age boundary conditions the continental interior of eurasia was 2 4 k warmer in summer and summer monsoon precipitation of north africa south asia was increased by 10 20 between 12 000 and 6000 yr bp before present when perihelion occurred during northern summer rather than in winter as now and the earth s axial tilt was larger than now southern hemisphe

primary production in the arabian sea during the last 135 000 years abstract variations in primary productivity pp have been reconstructed in eutrophic mesotrophic and oligotrophic parts of the arabian sea over the past 135 000 years applying principal component analysis and transfer function to planktic foraminiferal assemblages temporal variation in paleoproductivity is most pronounced in the mesotrophic northern nast site and oligotrophic eastern east site arabian sea and comparatively weak in the western eutrophic geob 3011 1 site in the upwelling area off oman higher pp during interglacials 250 320 g c m 2 year 1 than during cold stages 210 270 g c m 2 year 1 at geob 3011 1 could have been caused by a strengthened upwelling during intensified summer monsoons and increased wind velocities at nast during interglacials pp is estimated to exceed 250 g c m 2 year 1 and during glacials to be as low as 140 180 g c m 2 year 1 these fluctuations may result from a 1 varying impact of filaments that are associated to the oman coastal upwelling and 2 from open ocean upwelling associated to the findlater jet at east highest productivity of about 380 g c m 2 year 1 is documented for the transition from isotope stage 5 to 4 we suggest that during isotope stages 2 4 5 2 the transition 5 4 and the end of stage 6 deep mixing of surface waters was caused by moderate to strong winter monsoons and induced an injection of nutrients into the euphotic layer leading to enhanced primary production the deepening of the mixed layer during these intervals is confirmed by an increased concentration of deep dwelling planktic foraminiferal species a high productivity event in stage 3 displayed by estimated pp values and by planktic foraminifera and radiolaria flux and accumulation rate likely resulted from a combination of intensified sw monsoons with moderate to strong ne monsoons differential response of globigerina bulloides globigerinita glutinata and mixed layer species to the availability of food is suited to subdivide productivity regimes on a temporal and spatial scale

multiple climatic changes around the permian triassic boundary event revealed by an expanded palynological record from mid norway here we present the palynological record from two shallow core holes 6611 09 u 01 and 02 from the trondelag platform offshore mid norway consisting of 750 m of upper permian and lower triassic sediments the relatively homogeneous assemblages recovered from the upper permian deposits are dominated by gymnosperm pollen mainly pteridosperms at the base of the griesbachian numerous spore species appear in the record leading to an increased diversity the change at this boundary is also marked by the massive reduction of one group of pteridosperm pollen vittatina together with other typical permian elements e g lueckisporites virkkiae this group is rare but consistently present in the lower part of the griesbachian and it gradually disappears in its upper part the distribution of other groups such as taeniate and non taeniate bisaccate gymnosperm pollen pteridosperms and conifers shows no significant change across the boundary whereas spores and other gymnosperm pollen increase in diversity and abundance these changes coincide with the formational change between the schuchert dal formation upper permian and the wordie creek formation griesbachian equivalents late permian and griesbachian palynomorph assemblages display different patterns the former show a homogeneous composition of low diversity whereas the latter reflect diverse and variably composed floras the data suggest that the arid phase of the late permian was followed by a humid phase at the base of the griesbachian in the griesbachian section a succession of six distinct palynological assemblages phase ii vii can be inferred comparable changes have been described from east greenland the variations in the palynological record are interpreted to reflect changing ecological conditions e g changing humidity comparable variations in the distribution of 13 c isotope values reported from various sections from greenland and china showing stable values during the late permian and highly variable values during the griesbachian suggest common causes for the observed fluctuations multiphase volcanic activity of the siberian traps seems to be the most likely candidate to have caused the variations in the 13 c isotope as well as in the palynological record in contrast to the common claim that marine and terrestrial biota both suffered a mass extinction related to the permian triassic boundary event the studied material from the norwegian midlatitudinal sites shows no evidence for destruction of plant ecosystems the presence of diverse microfloras of griesbachian age supports the idea that the climate in this area allowed most plants to survive the permian triassic boundary event

the phytoplankton bloom in the northwestern arabian sea during the southwest monsoon of 1979 the biological variability of the northwestern arabian sea during the 1979 southwest monsoon has been investigated by the synthesis of satellite ocean color remote sensing with analysis of in situ hydrographic and meteorological data sets and the results of wind driven modeling of upper ocean circulation the phytoplankton bloom in the northwestern arabian sea peaked during august september extended from the oman coast to about 65 e and lagged the development of open sea upwelling by at least 1 month in total the pigment distributions hydrographic data and model results all suggest that the bloom was driven by spatially distinct upward nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone forced by the physical processes of coastal upwelling and offshore ekman pumping coastal upwelling was evident from may through september yielded the most extreme concentrations of phytoplankton biomass and along the arabian coast was limited to the continental shelf in the promotion of high concentrations of phytoplankton upward ekman pumping to the northwest of the somali jet axis stimulated the development of a broad open sea phytoplankton bloom oceanward of the oman shelf vertical mixing during the 1979 southwest monsoon was apparently not a primary cause of the regional scale phytoplankton bloom

interhemispheric synchrony of the last deglaciation inferred from alkenone palaeothermometry the relative timings of the last deglacial warming in the southern and northern hemispheres are not well constrained but are a crucial component in understanding the mechanisms of deglaciation1 a clearer picture of the degree of interhemispheric synchrony has been obscured by a dearth of high resolution temperature records that can be tied to the absolute calendar timescale moreover the quantification of tropical temperatures during the last glacial cycle is controversial2 8 here we apply the alkenone method of sea surface temperature reconstruction9 10 to several high resolution sediment cores recovered from the tropical indian ocean between 20 n and 20 s the inferred initial sea surface temperature warming 15 000 calendar years ago at 20 s is in phase with northern hemisphere sea this study and air11 temperature changes but lags antarctic warming12 14 by several millennia this finding along with the results of recent modelling studies15 16 provides strong support for the idea that changes in the ocean s global thermohaline circulation were not the only cause of interhemispheric climate teleconnection during the last deglaciation

reconstructing sea surface temperature and salinity using δ 18 o and alkenone records the oxygen isotope 18o composition of foraminiferal tests from deep sea sediments is widely used as a palaeoclimate proxy but it includes contributions from sea surface temperature global ice volume and local salinity which are difficult to separate recently a new technique for deriving palaeotemperatures has been developed which is based on the abundance ratios of unsaturated alkenones in phytoplankton algae1 2 here we use a combination of oxygen isotope and alkenone records in a deep sea core from the juncture of the arabian sea and the bay of bengal to extract the salinity signal from the former record variations in salinity are related to the balance between evaporation and precipitation3 and are thus a sensitive indicator of climate change our 170 kyr salinity record enables us to reconstruct changes in the indian monsoon over this period considerably extending earlier studies which reached back to 18 kyr ago 4 8 like these previous studies we find that large variations in the monsoon occurred during the transition from the last glacial period to the present interglacial but our results also provide a view of the monsoon throughout the last glacial and demonstrate the potential of this approach for reconstructing palaeosalinity

sea surface temperature and productivity records for the past 240 kyr in the arabian sea abstract deep sea sediments of two cores from the western ty93 929 p and the southeastern md900963 arabian sea were used to study the variations of the indian monsoon during previous climatic cycles core ty93 929 p was located between the sw monsoon driven upwelling centres off somalia and oman which are characterized by large seasonal sea surface temperature sst and particle flux changes by contrast core md900963 was situated near the maldives platform an equatorial ocean site with a rather small sst seasonality less than 2 c for both cores we have reconstructed sst variations by means of the unsaturation ratio of c37 alkenones which is compared with the 18o records established on planktonic foraminifera in general the sst records follow the 18o variations with an sst maximum during oxygen isotope stage 5 5 the last interglacial at about 120 130 kyr and a broad sst minimum during isotope stage 4 and 3 3 approximately 40 50 kyr the sst difference between the holocene and the last glacial maximum lgm is of the order of 2 c in both cores the ssts during isotope stage 6 are distinctly higher by 1 2 c than the cold sst minima during the last glacial cycle lgm and stage 3 to reconstruct qualitatively the past productivity variations for the two cores we used the concentrations and fluxes of alkenones and organic carbon together with a productivity index based on coccolith species florisphaera profunda relative abundance within each core there is a general agreement between the different palaeoproductivity proxies in the southeastern arabian sea core md900963 glacial stages correspond to relatively high productivity whereas warm interstadials coincide with low productivity all time series of productivity proxies are dominated by a cyclicity of about 21 23 kyr which corresponds to the insolation precessional cycle a hypothesis could be that the ne monsoon winds were stronger during the glacial stages which induced deepening of the surface mixed layer and injection of nutrients to the euphotic zone by contrast the records are more complicated in the upwelling region of the western arabian sea core ty93 929 p this is partly due to large changes in the sedimentation rates which were higher during specific periods isotope stages 6 5 4 5 2 3 and 2 unlike core md900963 no simple relationship emerges from the comparison between the 18o stratigraphy and productivity records the greater complexity observed for core ty93 929 p could be the result of the superimposition of different patterns of productivity fluctuations for the two monsoon seasons the sw monsoon being enhanced during interglacial periods whereas the ne monsoon was increased during glacial intervals a similar line of reasoning also could help explain the sst records by the superimposition of variations of three components global atmospheric temperature and sw and ne monsoon dynamics

impact of late quaternary environmental changes on deep sea benthic foraminiferal faunas of the red sea abstract fluctuations in abundance diversity and species composition of benthic foraminifera from two sites of the northern and southern red sea indicate strong variability of deep sea ecosystems during the last four glacial to interglacial cycles in total five and four different benthic foraminiferal assemblages have been identified in the northern core and southern core respectively comparison with recent faunas from the red sea and adjacent oceans allowed the reconstruction of temporal changes in deep water ventilation salinity and food availability at the seafloor generally the abundance of infaunal and miliolid taxa increase during glacial intervals indicating increased organic matter fluxes oxygen decrease and salinity increase in deep waters during these times these fluctuations are attributed to enhanced oxygen consumption rates and temporarily reduced deep water formation in the northern red sea during glacial intervals the recorded environmental changes are a reflection of both high and low latitude climate changes the northern red sea is mainly influenced by glacio eustatic sea level fluctuations that control deep water formation rates and by mid latitude climate changes of the mediterranean region that control surface productivity in contrast deep sea ecosystem variability of the southern red sea is additionally influenced by low latitude climate changes attributed to the ne monsoon intensity that drives the inflow of nutrient rich surface waters from the gulf of aden these results demonstrate the high sensitivity of deep sea ecosystems of the red sea to both global and regional climate changes

precessional forcing of nutricline dynamics in the equatorial atlantic climate control of nutricline depth in the equatorial atlantic can be monitored by variations in the abundance of the phytoplankton species florisphaera profunda a conceptual model based on in situ evidence associates high abundances of f profunda with a deep nutricline and low abundances with a shallow nutricline a 200 000 year record of f profunda relative abundances obtained from a deep sea core sited beneath the region of maximum equatorial divergence at 10 w has 52 percent of its variance centered on the 23 000 year precessional band cross spectral analysis between the signals of f profunda and sea surface temperature independently derived from zooplankton species shows their 23 000 year cycles to be coherent and nearly in phase abundance minima of f profunda coincide with times of december perihelion whereas abundance maxima coincide with june perihelion these relations indicate that nutricline dynamics in the divergence region of the equatorial atlantic are controlled by variations in the tropical easterlies forced by the precessional component of orbital insolation on time scales greater than 10 000 years

sea surface temperature pattern reconstructions in the arabian sea from throughout the arabian sea for four distinct time intervals 0 ka 8 ka 15 ka and 20 ka with the aim of understanding the history of the indian monsoon and the climate of the arabian sea region this was accomplished through the use of paired mg ca and d 18 o measurements of the planktonic foraminifer globigerinoides ruber by analyzing basin wide changes and changes in cross basinal gradients we assess both monsoonal and regional scale climate changes sst was colder than present for the majority of sites within all three paleotime slices furthermore both the indian monsoon and the regional arabian sea mean climate have varied substantially over the past 20 kyr the 20 ka and 15 ka time slices exhibit average negative temperature anomalies of 2 5 3 5 c attributable in part to the influences of glacial atmospheric co2 concentrations and large continental ice sheets the elimination of the cross basinal sst gradient during these two time slices likely reflects a decrease in summer monsoon and an increase in winter monsoon strength changes in d 18 ow that are smaller than the d 18 o signal due to global ice volume reflect decreased evaporation and increased winter monsoon mixing ssts throughout the arabian sea were still cooler than present by an average of 1 4 ci n the 8 ka time slice these cool ssts along with lower d 18 ow throughout the basin are attributed to stronger than modern summer and winter monsoons and increased runoff and precipitation the results of this study underscore the importance of taking a spatial approach to the reconstruction of processes such as monsoon upwelling

distributions of long chain alkenones and alkyl alkenoates in marine surface sediments from the north east atlantic abstract the abundances of long chain alkenones and alkyl alkenoates are reported for a suite of surface sediments from the ne atlantic 0 75 n despite the differing conditions of their biologies and differing extents of water column degradation and of early diagenesis in the sediments the degree of unsaturation of the alkenones e g the u 37 k parameter and the relative proportion of alkyl alkenoates to alkenones display linear correlations with average temperature for surface waters warmer than 5 c there is evidence that the chain length distribution of the alkenones and of the ratio between the ethyl and methyl c 38 alkenones are species dependent which would enable their use as chemotaxonomic tools

a 300 kyr record of upwelling off oman during the late quaternary evidence of the asian southwest monsoon in the northwest arabian sea upwelling occurs each summer driven by the strong sw monsoon winds upwelling results in high biological productivity and a distinctive assemblage of plankton species in the surface waters off oman that are preserved in the sediments along the oman continental margin creating a geologic record of monsoon driven upwelling sediments recovered from the oman continental margin during ocean drilling program leg 117 provide an opportunity to examine how upwelling has varied during the late quaternary spanning a longer interval than piston cores recovered prior to the odp cruise variations in foraminifer shell accumulation and in the relative abundance of globigerina bulloides indicate dominant cycles of variation at 1 100 kyr the dominant frequency of glacial interglacial variations and at 1 23 kyr the frequency of precessionally driven cycles in seasonal insolation the strongest monsoon winds indicated by increased upwelling occurred during interglacial times when perihelion was aligned with the summer solstice an orbital change that increased the insolation received during summer in the northern hemisphere during glacial times upwelling was reduced and although the precessional cycles were still present their amplitude was smaller at both frequencies the upwelling cycles are in phase with minimum ice volume evidence that glacial interglacial climate changes also include changes to the climate system that influence the low latitude monsoon we attribute the decrease in the monsoon winds observed during glacial times to changes in bare land albedo over asia and or to changes in the areal extent and seasonal cycle in asian snow cover that decrease the summer land sea temperature contrast other mechanisms may also be involved these new upwelling time series differ substantially from previous results however the previous work relied on cores located farther offshore where upwelling is less intense and other physical mechanisms become important our results support the observations derived from atmospheric general circulation models of the atmosphere that indicate that both glacial boundary conditions and the strength of summer insolation are important variables contributing to cycles in the monsoon winds during the late quaternary

upwelling and productivity changes inferred from a temperature record in the central equatorial pacific a series of c37 39 alkenones synthesized by prymnesiophyte algae is commonly preserved in marine sediments and can be used for estimating past sea surface temperatures ssts 1 2 here we present an alkenone analysis of sediments taken from the central equatorial pacific ocean core w8402a 14gc 0 57 n 138 57 w which shows that sst varied slightly 2 c but coherently with milankovitch insolation cycles over the past 250 kyr the in phase response of the sst to the precessional component of insolation indicates that this part of the sst time series may be driven by changes in local trade wind strength and the longer 100 kyr eccentricity component indicates a response to basin wide south pacific winds using a simple heat balance model we use our palaeotemperature record to constrain the upwelling rates that have occurred in the past similar sst records from the eastern pacific could constrain the horizontal advection component of the sst record and allow for better estimates of upwelling upwelling and palaeoproductivity then could be compared to determine whether changes in equatorial nutrient levels actually cause equivalent changes in productivity

east asian winter monsoon controlling phytoplankton productivity and community structure changes in the southeastern south china sea over the last 185 kyr abstract the south china sea scs is one of the largest marginal seas in the world and it plays an important role in regional climate change and carbon cycles however mechanisms of glacial interglacial phytoplankton productivity changes remain under studied especially for the southeastern scs in this study the productivity record for the southeastern scs core md972142 over the last 185 kyr was generated using multiple biomarkers including c37 alkenones c37 2 c37 3 brassicasterol dinosterol and alkyl diols c30 c32 as productivity proxies for haptophytes diatoms dinoflagellates and eustigmatophytes and diatoms respectively all biomarker contents indicate higher individual as well as total phytoplankton productivities during peak glacials than during interglacials our records afford a better constraint on spatial pattern of glacial productivity changes which suggest that both the southeastern and northern scs glacial productivity increases were controlled by the stronger east asian winter monsoon eawm which brought more nutrients to the surface through stronger mixing of nutrient rich deep waters biomarker ratios reveal a relatively stable phytoplankton community structure pcs but relative diatom productivity was higher during glacials the pcs record is consistent with stronger eawm forcing during glacials which supplied nutrients to the surface with relatively stable composition the decrease of c37 alkenones during the last 120 kyr is likely a global phenomenon which could be related to the evolution of the haptophytes in the scs this trend was also likely caused by changes of subsurface nutrient supply to the scs which significantly modulated the pcs by a gradual decrease of haptophyte contribution to total phytoplankton in the northern and southeastern scs since mis 5

glacial to interglacial contrasts in the northern indian ocean differences between the 18o 16o ratios of planktonic foraminifera deposited during the last glacial maximum about 18 000 yr ago and those deposited during the holocene show that in the indian ocean the south west monsoon was weaker than today but that the north east monsoon was stronger the upwelling observed in modern conditions along the southern coast of arabia had disappeared because of the low speed of the southwestern winds during glacial summers the reduction in rainfall and runoff over the continent caused a reduction of the salinity gradient in the bay of bengal and along the western coast of india increased precipitation fell on the sea south of 10 n while strong evaporation over the northernmost arabian sea produced an enhanced salinity gradient in that area

a first look at past sea surface temperatures in the equatorial indian ocean from mg ca in foraminifera 1 sea surface temperature sst for the central equatorial indian ocean has been reconstructed over the last 137 kyr from mg ca of the planktonic foraminiferal species globigerinoides ruber according to our record the equatorial indian ocean sst was 2 1 c colder during the last glacial maximum as compared to present times the data further shows that the surface equatorial indian ocean was comparatively warmer during isotopic stage 5e than at present 29 9 vs 28 5 c comparison of the equatorial indian ocean sst with the antarctic d and greenland 18o records shows that the major high latitude cooling warming events are also present in the equatorial indian ocean sst variation record similarity between the equatorial indian ocean sst and the equatorial pacific sst suggests the possibility of a common mechanism controlling the ssts in both the equatorial indian ocean and the pacific ocean

atlantic core top calibration of the u37k index as a sea surface palaeotemperature indicator abstract a field calibration of the uk index with sea surface temperature is discussed through analysis of an extensive suite of surface sediments n 109 from the northeastern atlantic 2 s 75 n values of u 37 k are compared with sea surface temperatures for overlying waters measured at different depths and seasons to obtain a correlation suitable for palaeotemperature reconstructions the best fit is obtained using surface 0 m temperatures corresponding to caloric winter and autumn months however the annual average spring and summer surface temperature equations also have high correlation coefficients and are also appropriate for climatic studies the results further validate the general applicability of the u 37 k as a climatic proxy because the calibration equations are valid over a wide range of surface water temperatures 0 28 c for different algal populations and are representative of the average contribution of alkenones to sediments as found in sediment cores

variations of the monsoon regime during the upper quaternary evidence from carbon isotopic record of organic matter in north indian ocean sediment cores abstract the 13 c 12 c ratios and contents of organic carbon in deep sea sediment cores of the north indian ocean have been compared for the different climatic stages as determined by oxygen isotope stratigraphy using the differences in the 13 c values between marine and terrestrial organic matter the terrestrial contribution to the eastern gulf of bengal and the andaman sea has been determined for modern and glacial times the geographical distribution of the terrestrial organic carbon linked to sea surface circulation shows that during the last glacial period the ne monsoon circulation was the dominant feature the organic carbon abundance within the sediment which is related to local productivity was greater during glacial times in the areas where production depends on the ne monsoon strength coast of north india in the arabian sea and andaman sea suggesting its reinforcement

assessing influence of diagenetic carbonate dissolution on planktonic foraminiferal mg ca in the southeastern arabian sea over the past 450 ka comparison between globigerinoides ruber and globigerinoides sacculifer 1 the influence of supralysoclinal calcite dissolution on the mg ca thermometer over the last 450 ka is assessed using globigerinoides ruber and globigerinoides sacculifer from a core site in the eastern arabian sea the studied site is characterized by precession cycled paleoproductivity changes that have induced calcite dissolution in the sediments although the core still contains 40 80 caco3 during high productivity periods the narrow sized test weights of both foraminiferal species tend to decrease with increasing mn ca ratio indicating corrosive pore water conditions scanning electron microscope observations show that g sacculifer maintains a better preserved test ultrastructure than g ruber microprobe mapping reveals that mg rich bands in g ruber chamber walls are preserved despite reduced ca content assuming that the low test weight and offset in mg ca temperature between g sacculifer and g ruber are exclusively produced by calcite dissolution the bias in mg ca temperature determination can be estimated at around 1 c comparable to uncertainty of this thermometry despite the evidence for test dissolution foraminiferal mg ca seems to preserve initial temperature signals under the studied conditions

atmospheric summer circulation and coastal upwelling in the arabian sea during the holocene and the last glaciation accumulation rates of biogenic and lithogenic components were studied in 39 turbidite free well dated sediment cores from the northern indian ocean to define the proportions of fluvial and eolian input and to reconstruct quaternary patterns of coastal upwelling the majority of dust deposited in the western arabian sea during the holocene about 100 106 t yr 1 is advected from arabia by northwesterly winds which overlie the low level southwest monsoon the glacial increase in dust flux to 160 106 t yr 1 culminated in the northern arabian sea most probably due to i entrainment of dust rich in chlorite dolomite and lithogenic carbonate in the then dry persian gulf and ii a southward shift of the mean position of the southwest monsoon during glacial summer this shift is recorded in reduced accumulation rates of biogenic opal and increased rates of marine carbonate off somalia and oman both the terrigenous and biogenic sediment records show that the northwesterly winds and the southwest monsoon persisted over the last 27 000 yr as well as the asian continental summer heat low however the glacial seasonal time span of the southwest monsoon season was much reduced most likely because of a delay in the seasonal onset of the southwest monsoon

oxygenation changes in the deep western arabian sea during the last 190 000 years productivity versus deepwater circulation 1 fluctuations in the abundance of selected foraminiferal indicator species and diversity allowed the reconstruction of changes in deepwater oxygenation and monsoon driven organic matter fluxes in the deep western arabian sea during the last 190 kyr times of maximum surface production coincide with periods of intensified sw monsoon as shown by the abundance of globigerina bulloides and enhanced carbonate corrosion benthic ecosystem variability in the deep arabian sea is not exclusively driven by variations in monsoonal upwelling and related organic matter supply to the seafloor but also by changes in deepwater ventilation deepening of the base of the oxygen minimum zone omz below 1800 m water depth is strongly coherent on the precessional band but lags proxies of sw monsoon strength by 4 to 6 kyr the out of phase relationship between omz deepening and maximum sw monsoon strength is explained by temporal changes in the advection of oxygen rich deepwater masses of north atlantic and antarctic origin this process affected the remineralization and burial efficiency of organic matter in the deep arabian sea resulting in the observed phase lag between maximum monsoon strength and organic carbon preservation

sea surface temperatures of southern midlatitudes 0 160 kyr b p 1 late quaternary climate fluctuated between extremes of glaciations lasting 90 kyr on average and interglacial episodes lasting 10 kyr still largely unknown are the spatial and temporal evolution of these global climate states with vigorous debate still underway on the mechanisms responsible for glacial inceptions and terminations though it is widely believed that the southern hemisphere oceans play a central role in global climate changes few paleoclimate records exist from there here we present three new alkenone derived sst records from the midlatitude southern hemisphere spanning the last 160 kyr a full glacial interglacial cycle our subtropical sst records from the last glacial period are characterized by 1 warming 47 23 kyr b p when high latitudes in both hemispheres cooled and 2 milder temperatures during the penultimate glacial period than during the last glacial interval these sst features are found to be of tropical to subtropical wide extent implying increased thermal gradients at times of high latitude ice sheet growth this has implications for the vigor of atmospheric and upper ocean circulation and the transport of heat and moisture to the poles that may have been instrumental in the growth and maintenance of polar ice sheets during glacial periods

high resolution holocene monsoon record from the eastern arabian sea through stable oxygen and carbon analyses of rapidly accumulating sediment cores from the eastern arabian sea we show that the excess of evaporation over precipitation e p steadily appears to have decreased during the last 10 000 to 2000 years most probably due to an increasing trend in the summer monsoon rainfall contrary to the land based paleoclimatic data from this region which indicate onset of aridity around 4000 years ago our results are consistent with the hypothesis that significant spatial variability in the monsoon rainfall observed today was persistent during most of the holocene alternatively the trend can be seen as an adjustment between two phases one between 10 000 and 6000 years ago of increasing precipitation and another between 3500 and 2000 years ago after the arid episode we also report a significant 700 year periodicity similar to that reported recently from the south china sea indicating that the centennial millennial scale response of the indian and chinese monsoons to high latitude forcing may be alike

molecular record of secular sea surface temperature changes on 100 year timescales for glacial terminations i ii and iv high resolution palaeoclimate records based on oxygen isotope data have provided important insights into climate variability and rates of natural climate change on about a thousand year timescale1 3 little is known4 however about the variation of climate and of palaeoceanographic conditions throughout the quaternary on timescales of less than 1 000 years at frequencies far greater than those of the milankovitch orbital cycles here we show that such high time resolution is possible from molecular stratigraphic studies based on biomarker organic molecules alkenones we have sampled alkenone stratigraphic records at 70 to 200 yr intervals across glacial terminations i ii and iv in sediment cores from oop site 658 off northwest africa5 sea surface temperatures ssts derived from the alkenone uk37 index6 8vary rapidly beyond the range of analytical noise by up to 2 5 c in 300 yr showing hitherto unknown cycles with about 600 yr periodicities some of the changes parallel similar events in the oxygen isotope stratigraphy sst oscillations may be linked in part to abrupt breakdowns in atlantic deep water ventilation resulting from meltwater events of quaternary glacial terminations3 9 10

molecular stratigraphy a new tool for climatic assessment variations in sea surface temperatures over the past 500 000 years are inferred from the relative abundance behaviour of two organic compounds c37 alkenones over the upper 8 metres of a sediment core from the eastern equatorial atlantic this molecular record ascribed to contributions from prymnesiophyte algae correlates well with the variations in the 18 signal for the calcareous skeletons of certain planktonic foraminifera thus providing the first demonstration of a new stratigraphical technique which may be especially valuable where methods based on carbonate 18 fail

organic carbon accumulation rates in the holocene and glacial arabian sea implications for o2 consumption in the deep sea and atmospheric co2 variations variations in the deep sea carbon reservoir have been invoked to explain the observed atmospheric carbon dioxide co2 changes during glacial interglacial cycles in order to distinguish between the quantity of organic matter remineralized in the deep sea and that permanently removed into sediments we compared the bulk and organic carbon accumulation rates in holocene and glacial sediments deposited below the oxygen minimum layer with total and organic carbon fluxes to the deep arabian sea from continuous sediment trap deployments this comparison shows that the mass of organic carbon remineralized at the sediment water interface is mainly a function of the bulk sediment flux the oxygen consumed by the organic carbon remineralization is of the order of the observed oxygen deficiency of the modern deep arabian sea water we use the evidence from the northern indian ocean to speculate on the possible effect of abiogenic mineral flux on the removal of organic carbon from upper layers of the world ocean to the deep sea we assume that if the bulk accumulation rate not primary productivity influences the flux of organic carbon that is fixed from the atmosphere by marine organisms then mineral matter flux will exert a significant control over atmospheric co2 contents model calculations incorporating transient changes in global bulk flux caused by natural or anthropogenic changes show that significant proportions of the observed changes in atmospheric co2 contents can be explained by this mechanism

sea surface temperatures and the history of monsoon upwelling in the northwest arabian sea during the last 500 000 years abstract arabian sea sediments record changes in the upwelling system off arabia which is driven by the monsoon circulation system over the nw indian ocean in accordance with climate models and differing from other large upwelling areas of the tropical ocean a 500 000 yr record of productivity at odp site 723 shows consistently stronger upwelling during interglaciations than during glaciations sea surface temperatures ssts reconstructed from the alkenone unsaturation index uk 37 are high up to 27 c during interglaciations and low 22 24 c during glaciations indicating a glacial interglacial temperature change of 3 c in spite of the dampening effect of enhanced or weakened upwelling the increased productivity is attributed to stronger monsoon winds during interglacial times relative to glacial times whereas the difference in ssts must be unrelated to upwelling and to the summer monsoon intensity the winter ne monsoon was more effective in cooling the arabian sea during glaciations then it is now

new evidence for a reduced water balance in east africa during the last glacial maximum implication for model data comparison some syntheses of lake level data for the last glacial maximum lgm in east africa 10 n and 30 s east of 25 e show apparently wetter conditions than present for some basins whereas palaeovegetation reconstruction indicates a generally dry climate pmip gcm simulations for the lgm support both scenarios for this region when run under different boundary conditions here we compare three new records from lakes in the data poor southern part of east africa lake malawi lake massoko and lake rukwa we also re assess previously published lake level data and apply a salinity transfer function to the diatom record from lake manyara our results show that in contrast to previous interpretations these lakes were at least as low as today at the lgm and are thus in agreement with the palaeovegetation data relative drought across east africa is best simulated by gcms that use computed ssts rather than the higher climap values lower ssts and the presence of the northern hemisphere ice sheets must have been dominant over any monsoon precipitation rise caused by astronomically induced summer insolation enhancement in the southern african tropics

conodont based quantitative biostratigraphy for the eifelian of the eastern anti atlas morocco the measured ranges of 52 conodont taxa present in 7 eifelian sections of the eastern anti atlas in southern morocco have been as sembled by graphic correlation method into a chronostratigraphic framework the anti atlas regional composite developed in this study provides much higher stratigraphic res olution than the traditionally used conodont zonation it allows a subdivision of the eifelian into 65 7 composite standard units derived from the jebel ou driss section which was se lected as the standard reference section the framework appears to have a linear fit to time giving the first image of the relative duration of the conodont zones in the upper emsian to lower givetian interval the costatus kockeli anus and lower varcus chrons appear to have lasted more than two times longer than the partitus australis and or hemiansatus chrons an alternative upper eifelian lower givetian conodont zonation with zones of more equal duration is proposed several conodont index taxa in the anti atlas area display an almost synchronous appearance independent of fa cies conditions and shelf paleobathymetry the analysis by graphic correlation reveals significant differences in rate of sediment accu mulation between the tafilalt platform which had condensed sedimentation 2 5 m m y and the mader basin characterized by rates up to 40 m m y area the devonian rocks offer excellent condi tions for detailed biostratigraphical studies their depositional history reflects the process of disin tegration of the northern margin of the sahara cra ton wendt 1985 1988 in contrast to the rather uniformly developed upper silurian and lower devonian sedimentary rocks differential subsi dence affected the area during eifelian time and thus a platform to basin topography of the shelf began to originate this phase is biostratigraphi cally relatively well constrained conodonts were found in many sections providing a base for cor relation of eifelian rocks in the anti atlas bul tynck and hollard 1980 bultynck and jacobs 1981 bultynck 1985 1987 1989 1991 the fauna dominated by polygnathus elements is lo cally very abundant but some stratigraphically important eifelian index taxa are rare or absent so that the position of some zonal boundaries e g the base of the eifelian cannot be precisely rec ognized this is why bultynck 1987 proposed two alternative conodont zonations for the upper eifelian lower givetian interval in order to provide a more accurate basis for correlation of eifelian rocks and events in north ern africa we used the graphic correlation method to develop a composite standard section based on conodont data from the eastern anti at las our regional chronostratigraphic framework anti atlas regional composite provides a much more linear biostratigraphic subdivision than any previously used conodont zonation it offers moreover the best possible stratigraphic resolu tion useful for detailed analysis of the sedimen tary evolution of the study area during the middle devonian this contribution constitutes a first ap proach in the construction of the eifelian com posite standard with worldwide applicability in conventional biostratigraphy fossil zones are used to achieve correlation the graphic cor relation technique however produces a frame work that is founded on biostratigraphy but inte grates all the biostratigraphic events onto a composite standard this method was developed by shaw 1964 and was subsequently extended e g miller 1977 sweet 1979 edwards 1984 1989 to be applicable to nonpaleontologic and nonunique but chronostratigraphically signifi cant events including magnetic polarity data key lithological marker beds various geophysical log type data and stable isotope logs it constitutes a powerful tool for the analysis of synchroneity or nonsynchroneity of geologic events integrated with sequence stratigraphy and sedimentological data shaw s method of graphic correlation is one of the standard techniques applied in modern basin analysis e g neal et al 1994 geologic setting

coherent response of arabian sea upwelling and pollen transport to late quaternary monsoonal winds the indian summer monsoon causes large seasonal changes in the environments of both eastern africa and the arabian sea here we compare time series 140 kyr long of selected pollen types and foraminiferal upwelling faunas preserved in marine sediments to identify the frequencies of their variability and the coherence and phase of the terrestrial and marine responses to monsoonal circulation during interglacial intervals the pollen and upwelling records of the western arabian sea indicate stronger monsoons and are both coherent and in phase at periodicities near the precession of the earth s rotational axis 23 kyr we conclude that the strength of the monsoonal southwesterlies accounts for this high coherence of marine and terrestrial records during interglacial intervals low correlation during glacial phases indicates weaker monsoons and some decoupling of these two records these data indicate that two distinct modes of monsoon variability may exist an interglacial mode with strong monsoons and effective coupling of terrestrial and marine records and a glacial mode with both weaker monsoons and decreased linkage between arabian sea pollen and upwelling records

microfossil evidence for changing salinity patterns in the bay of bengal over the last 20 000 years the monsson climate characterizing the northern indian ocean produces salinity gradients that are large compared with those in other open ocean areas these gradients are substantially independent of thermal and other ecologically important gradients this situation makes it possible not only to isolate the effect of salinity on sea bed distribution patterns of planktonic foraminifera but also to investigate past salinity changes along a north south transect of piston cores in the bay of bengal analysis of 152 surface sediment samples reveals that at least three factors other than salinity are important in controlling foraminiferal distribution sea bed dissolution surface productivity and surface temperature of these dissolution is the most important therefore in order to reconstruct past salinity patterns in the bay of bengal faunal indices need to be developed that isolate the effect of salinity we have developed two independent approaches the first uses ternary diagrams of the three dominant dissolution resistant species globoquadrina dutertrei globorotalia menardii pulleniatina obliquiloculata high values of g dutertrei are associated with low surface salinities the second approach uses dissolution buffered salinity transfer functions based on the total foraminiferal fauna in the 152 surface samples from the northern indian ocean applied to downcore samples these methods show the same basic historical pattern of salinity variation which is in turn consistent with independent inferences based on preliminary oxygen isotope data duplessy 1980 historical changes in the bay of bengal salinity are reconstructed along a north south transect of seven cores at 90 e the stratigraphy of the transect is controlled by oxygen isotope profiles that are similar to the generalized patterns observed in other areas over the past 20 000 yr salinity gradients are reconstructed for three time intervals 1 the last glacial maximum lgm 2 the mid termination mt and 3 the holocene during the lgm interval salinity was highger in the bay of bengal particularly in the north thus reducing the north south salinity gradient during the mt the middle of the transition from glacial to interglacial global climatic regimes northern bay of bengal surface salinity was considerably reduced while salinity to the south was generally similar to today thus the salinity gradient between 10 n and 15 n was considerably steeper than today in contrast the holocene gradient was approximately the same as the modern gradient with absolute values along the transect being slightly but uniformly higher these changes in the pattern of salinity are explained in terms of changes in the local patterns of precipitation and river run off during the lgm the salinity pattern probably results from decreased precipitation and decreased run off by the ganges brahmaputra river system during the mt decreased salinity in the northern bay of bengal is caused by increased precipitation and run off rather than by the influx of glacial meltwater the steeper mt salinity gradient in the central bay of bengal suggests increased eastward advection of equatorial surface waters by a southwest monsoon current somewhat more vigorous than today these patterns can be correlated with faunal evidence from the western arabian sea that suggest decreased upwelling during the lgm and increased upwelling during the mt this coupling of events may be associated with changes in the pattern or intensity of circulation during the southwest monsoon decreased intensity at the lgm 18 000 b p and increased intensity at the mt 10 500 to 12 500 b p

age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages development of a high resolution 0 to 300 000 year chronostratigraphy using the concept of orbital tuning a continuous high resolution deep sea chronostratigraphy has been developed spanning the last 300 000 yr the chronology is developed using a stacked oxygen isotope stratigraphy and four different orbital tuning approaches each of which is based upon a different assumption concerning the response of the orbital signal recorded in the data each approach yields a separate chronology the error measured by the standard deviation about the average of these four results which represents the best chronology has an average magnitude of only 2500 yr this small value indicates that the chronology produced is insensitive to the specific orbital tuning technique used excellent convergence between chronologies developed using each of five different paleoclimatological indicators from a single core is also obtained the resultant chronology is also insensitive to the specific indicator used the error associated with each tuning approach is estimated independently and propagated through to the average result the resulting error estimate is independent of that associated with the degree of convergence and has an average magnitude of 3500 yr in excellent agreement with the 2500 yr estimate transfer of the final chronology to the stacked record leads to an estimated error of 1500 yr thus the final chronology has an average error of 5000 yr