Historical February Sea-Surface Temperature Estimates Utilising Diatom Transfer Functions with Core MD88-787

Brief description

The purpose of this study was to estimate past sea-surface temperature in the Southeast Indian Ocean. The accumulation of diatom microplankton assemblages in sediments being the proxy for these records of climatic change.

A transfer function is a mathematical method that allows quantitative estimations of environmental parameters from past biogenic sedimentation. In this study, a diatom transfer function was established to relate biological species to selected environmental parameter of the ocean (sea-surface temp). These equations were then employed on observed fossil species from core samples to provide quantitative estimates of sea-surface temperature.

Estimates of sea-surface temperature are given here based on the assemblages of diatoms found in core MD88-787. The information provided gives the extrapolated age-scale through the core, and two estimates of feb SST based on different diatom transfer functions (DTF 109/24/6 and DTF 166/34/4).

It is probable that the 'real' SST signal lies between the model estimates. The model diagnostics and lower number of non-analogue events from DTF 109/24/6 over that of results produced by DTF 166/34/4 suggest that SST estimates are closer to those provided by the former model.

Full description

App 3-2.pdf -
App_6-8__787.pdf -
App 6-6 787.pdf -
aodn:bluenet_datasets_southern_indian_ocean - Core Data – Southern and Indian Ocean
http://gcmd.nasa.gov/Resources/valids/keyword_list.html -