Sea Surface Temperature Changes Reflected by Diatoms in the P6-10 Core from 1893 to 2013 from Prydz Bay, Antarctica

• Published in: Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
• Main Authors: Yue Huang, Ruiwen Ma, Jie Li, Shuyu Tu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2023
• Subjects: diatom; SST; semi-quantitative reconstruction; Prydz Bay; Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering; VM1-989; Oceanography; GC1-1581; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11071428; https://doaj.org/article/43d572961f8c421a9504847637e112b4

Identification and analysis was conducted on the diatoms from the 19 cm sediment of the P6-10 core, drilled from China’s 29th Antarctic Expedition, to attempt to semi-quantitatively reconstruct the annual sea surface temperature (SST) of Prydz Bay from 1893 to 2013. There were 30 species within the 12 genera of diatoms found, and the main contributors were Fragilariopsis curta , F. cylindrus , F. sublinearis , F. ritscheri , and Thalassiosira antarctica . They were divided into three categories based on their ecological affinity. The percentages of four specific species, i.e., F. curta , F. cylindrus , F. ritscheri , and F. separanda , which might be low SST indicators, were added together to represent the SST of Prydz Bay. With the help of cluster analysis, diatom assemblages were divided into diatom zones. Therefore, SST changes were divided into five stages by both the percentage of those four diatom species and the diatom zones: the high-temperature stage from 1893 to 1903, the cooling stage from 1903 to 1936, the stable and warm stage from 1936 to 1983, the low-temperature stage from 1983 to 1996, and the temperature rising stage from 1996 to 2013. On the multidecadal scale, SST change was affected by adjustments to solar radiation. On the contrary, the ENSO events mainly affected SST on the interannual scale. In addition, regarding the unique geographical environment (such as regional atmospheric circulation and a wind field) in Prydz Bay, volcanic eruptions and the like also played important roles in some exceptional periods.