Interactions Between Depositional Regime and Climate Proxies in the Northern South China Sea Since the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

The South China Sea (SCS) is the largest marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, and is an ideal location for reconstructing past environmental changes in southeast Asia in response to climate change. The northern SCS is

High-resolution record of temporal change in organic matter burial over the past ∼8,600 years on the northwestern continental slope of the South China Sea

“…The lack of large-scale upwelling in the northwestern SCS, where seawater stratification is common, suggests that it is possible that the variation in δ 15 N values in sediments of core G02 has been at least partly controlled by the upper water column stratification (Lin et al, 2010;Wu et al, 2017;Zhu et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2023a). A recent study has reconstructed the upper vertical structure of the SCS during the Holocene using ΔT (water temperature difference between layers) and BIT index (the ratio of brGDGTs to isoGDGTs) (Wang et al, 2023b). A decrease in ΔT and an increase in the BIT index indicate enhanced stratification (Figures 6B, C), as has been identified for the Late Holocene in the NSCS (Steinke et al, 2011).…”

“…The gray bar and orange bar represent periods of enhanced and weakened Kuroshio Current (KC) intrusion, respectively. (A) Global relative sea level (RSL)(Lambeck et al, 2014); (B) The water temperature difference between layers (ΔT (G-P) ) of core MD05-2904(Steinke et al, 2011); (C) The ratio of brGDGTs to isoGDGTs (BIT) results(Wang et al, 2023b); (D-E) abundance of P. obliquiloculata in cores B-3gc and B-255(Jian et al, 2000); and (F) temporal variation in δ 15 N within core G02 (this study). PEM = Pulleniatina Minimum Event.…”