NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Subantarctic sea surface temperatures and salinity change

Laboratory culturing experiments with living Globigerina bulloides indicate that Mg/Ca is primarily a function of seawater temperature and suggest that Mg/Ca of fossil specimens is an effective paleotemperature proxy. Using culturing results and a core-top Neogloboquadrina pachyderma calibration, we have estimated glacial–interglacial changes in sea surface temperature (SST) using planktonic Mg/Ca records from core RC11-120 in the Subantarctic Indian Ocean (43°S, 80°E) and core E11-2 in the Subantarctic Pacific Ocean (56°S, 115°W). Our results suggest that glacial SST was about 4°C cooler in the Subantarctic Indian Ocean and 2.5°C cooler in the Subantarctic Pacific. Comparison of SST and planktonic δ18O records indicates that changes in SST lead changes in δ18O by on average 1–3 kyr. The glacial–interglacial temperature change indicated by the Subantarctic Mg/Ca records suggests that temperature accounts for 40–60% of the foraminiferal δ18O change. We have used the Mg/Ca-based SST estimates and δ18O determinations to generate site-specific seawater δ18O records, which suggest that seawater δ18O was on average 1‰ more positive during glacial episodes compared with interglacial episodes.