Sedimentation rates and geochemical analysis of surface sediments from the South Atlantic, supplement to: Nürnberg, Christine Caroline; Bohrmann, Gerhard; Frank, Martin; Schlüter, Michael (1997): Barium accumulation in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean - Results from 190,000 year records. Paleoceanography, 12(4), 594-603

• Main Authors: Nürnberg, Christine Caroline, Bohrmann, Gerhard, Frank, Martin, Schlüter, Michael
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 1997
• Subjects: Giant box corer; van Veen Grab; CTD/Rosette; Multiboxcorer; Giant gravity corer AWI; Piston corer BGR type; MultiCorer; Gravity corer Kiel type; MiniCorer; ANT-V/4; ANT-VI/3; ANT-VIII/3; ANT-IX/2; ANT-IX/3; ANT-IX/4; ANT-X/4; ANT-X/5; ANT-X/6; ANT-XI/2; Polarstern; Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions from Marine Sediments @ AWI AWI_Paleo; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Van Veen; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.723566; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.723566

Extensive investigations of sedimentary barium were performed in the southern South Atlantic in order to assess the reliability of the barium signal in Antarctic sediments as a proxy for paleoproductivity. Maximum accumulation rates of excess barium were calculated for the Antarctic zone south of the polar front where silica accumulates at high rates. The correspondence between barium and opal supports the applicability of barium as a proxy for productivity. Within the Antarctic zone north of today's average sea ice maximum, interglacial vertical rain rates of excess barium are high, with a maximum occurring during the last deglaciation and early Holocene and during oxygen isotope chronozone 5.5. During these periods, the maximum silica accumulation was supposedly located south of the polar front. Glacial paleoproductivity, instead, was low within the Antarctic zone. North of the polar front, significantly higher barium accumulation occurs during glacial times. The vertical rain rates, however, are as high as in the glacial Antarctic zone. Therefore there was no evidence for an increased productivity in the glacial Southern Ocean.