Sedimentary biogeochemistry and palaeoceanography of the South China Sea during the late Pleistocene ...

• Main Author: Kienast, Markus
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0052772; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0052772

The South China Sea (SCS) is the largest marginal basin off the Asian continent and its surface hydrography as well as sedimentation within the basin are strongly influenced by the SE Asian monsoon and eustatic sea-level changes. The rapidly accumulating sediments in this basin are therefore a unique and sensitive monitor of past variations in monsoonal climate, ocean-continent linkages, deglacial sea-level, and marine biogeochemical processes and their relationship to climate change. This thesis contributes to our understanding of these key aspects of glacial-interglacial palaeoceanography by presenting multi-proxy organic and inorganic sediment geochemical records from a large number of gravity cores and surface sediment samples from throughout the SCS. Records of deglacial sea surface temperature (SST) and summer monsoon variability point to a close coupling with the climate of the circum- North Atlantic realm, whereas sedimentological changes associated with variations in winter monsoonal intensity ...