Pleistocene Intermediate- and Deep-Water Circulation in the SW Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean

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We intend to investigate the glacial/interglacial variability of intermediate- and deep-water circulation in the SW Pacific. This study will focus on the role of glacial deep- and bottom-waters formed in the vicinity of the Ross Sea. Own previous results from the Australian sector of the Southern Ocean depict the Ross Sea as a major glacial source for deep-waters that ventilated the deep Pacific. To verify this hypothesis, we propose to take five new IMAGES cores on an intermediate to deep-water transect between 900 and 4.000 m water depth in the SW Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. The setting provides an excellent opportunity to assess the causal relationships between upper-ocean stratification... and changes in intermediate- to deep-water formation, circulation and carbonate chemistry. These reconstructions will be based on planktonic... and benthic Mg/Ca, ¿ 180 and ¿ 13C records indicative of changes in temperature, salinity, nutrients and the degree of ventilation.