Stable oxygen isotope ratios of sediment core PS2487-6 of the southern South Atlantic (Table 2)

Piston core (PS2487-6), recovered south of Cape Town, and sediment surface samples, recovered in the area of the Agulhas Current retroflection, were used to construct paleoceanographic scenarios for the late Quaternary in a region with an important role in global water mass transfer. Coccolithophore (calcareous nannofossil) and planktonic foraminifera assemblages and oxygen isotope data were collected. Stratigraphic control is based on calibration of the delta18O stratigraphic signals with calcareous nannofossil events that are thought to be synchronous over a broad range of latitudes. Study of the surface sediments permits the characterisation of the Agulhas Current, Subtropical Convergence and Subantarctic coccolithophore assemblages. The Agulhas Current assemblage has relatively high proportions of Florisphaera profunda, Gephyrocapsa oceanica and Umbilicosphaera spp. These species are absent or present in low proportions in subantarctic waters. The abundance of coccolithophores during isotope stages 1, 5 and 7 is characteristic of relatively warm, stratified surface waters, with a deep nutricline and chlorophyll maximum, which strongly suggests that the area was under the influence of the Agulhas Current retroflection. The incursion of Globigerinoides ruber, abundant today in the Agulhas Current, also supports this interpretation. Conversely, during glacial stages 2-4 and 6, a strong reduction in warm and stratified water indicators can be observed, together with an increase in cold-eutrophic species.