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12-14 September, 2011, Lucknow - Earth Science India

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National Conference on <strong>Science</strong> of Climate Change and <strong>Earth</strong>’s Sustainability: Issues and Challenges ‘A Scientist-People Partnership’<br />

<strong>12</strong>-<strong>14</strong> <strong>September</strong>, <strong>2011</strong>, <strong>Lucknow</strong><br />

GLACIAL-INTERGLACIAL PRODUCTIVITY<br />

FLUCTUATIONS FROM INDIAN ANTARCTIC POLAR<br />

FRONT OF SOUTHERN OCEAN<br />

Sunil Kumar Shukla 1,3 , Xavier Crosta 1 , M. Sudhakar 2 , G.N. Nayak 3<br />

and Olivier Ther 1<br />

1 UMR-CNRS 5805 EPOC, Université Bordeaux 1, Avenue des facultés, 33405 Talence Cedex, France<br />

2 Ministry of <strong>Earth</strong> <strong>Science</strong>s, Govt. of <strong>India</strong>, CGO Complex, New Delhi – 110 003<br />

3 Department of Marine <strong>Science</strong>s, Goa University, Taleigao Plateau, Goa – 403 206<br />

Southern Ocean (SO) plays a pivotal role in regulating glacial-interglacial<br />

variability of atmospheric CO 2 due to deep-water masses protrusion and exchanges of<br />

gases with the atmosphere. The circumpolar connection in the SO permits a global-scale<br />

overturning (thermohaline) circulation to exist. Diatoms are dominant primary<br />

producers in SO and play decisive role in global cycling of silicic acid and carbon.<br />

Their cell sizes determine carbon sequestration efficiency as large cells export<br />

disproportionately large amount of carbon to the ocean floor due to their faster sinking<br />

and slower dissolution. Diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis is endemic to SO and its<br />

abundance reaches up to 90% of the total assemblages in surface sediments. Due to its<br />

abundance and good preservation in the sediments, it can be used as a potential proxy to<br />

decipher the cycling of nutrients and productivity fluctuations through glacialinterglacial<br />

cycles in SO. Therefore, we present biometric investigations of F.<br />

kerguelensis from a well dated core SO136-111 from <strong>India</strong>n Antarctic Polar Front<br />

(APF) of SO over the last 40,000 years. Apical length, trans-apical length and valve<br />

area of F. kerguelensis are compared to its absolute and relative abundances as a proxy<br />

for the species productivity, along with sea surface temperature and sea ice duration<br />

reconstructed through diatom-based transfer function by applying modern analogue<br />

technique.<br />

Downcore records demonstrate that F. kerguelensis valves were longer and more<br />

abundant during the Holocene than during the glacial-deglacial period which is opposite<br />

to the records of Atlantic sector of SO. The opposite records in the <strong>India</strong>n and Atlantic<br />

sectors of the Southern Ocean may indicate that different factors regulated diatom<br />

biology in these basins. In the Atlantic sector, longer F. kerguelensis during the last<br />

glacial period may have resulted from greater iron availability from melting ice [Cortese<br />

and Gersonde, 2007]. In the <strong>India</strong>n sector where little ice melt was registered during the<br />

glacial period, longer F. kerguelensis during the Holocene may have resulted from the<br />

prevalence of warmer oceanic conditions and greater upwelling, which is more<br />

favourable for sexually-induced production of long initial cells. Instead of being<br />

opposite records, both these studies argue against the high opal fluxes recorded during<br />

10

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