• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.211-221
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• 2011

Contents of biogenic components [opal, $CaCO_3$, TOC (total organic carbon)] were measured in Core LHB-3PC sediments collected off Lutzow-Holm Bay, in order to understand glacial-interglacial cyclic variation of the high-latitude surface-water paleoproductivity, in the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean. An age model was established from the correlation of ARM/IRM ratios of Core LHB-3PC with LR04 stack benthic ${\delta}^{18}O$ records, in complement with radiocarbon isotope ages and biostratigraphic Last Appearance Datum (LAD). The core-bottom age was estimated to be about 700 ka. Although the $CaCO_3$ content is very low less than 1.0% throughout the core, the opal and TOC contents show clear glacial-interglacial cyclic variation such that they are high during the interglacial periods (7.2-50.3% and 0.05-1.00%, respectively) and low during the glacial periods (5.2-25.2% and 0.01-0.68%, respectively). According to the spectral analysis, the variation of opal content is controlled mainly by eccentricity forcing and subsequently by obliquity forcing during the last 700 kyrs. The opal contents of Core LHB-3PC also represent the apparent Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT)-related climatic variation in the glacial-interglacial cycles. In particular, the orbital variation of the opal contents shows increasing amplitudes since marine isotope stage (MIS) 11, which defines one of the important paleoclimatic events during the late Quaternary, called the "Mid-Brunhes Event". Based on the variation of the opal contents in Core LHB-3PC, we suggest that the surface-water paleoproductivity in the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean followed the orbital (glacial-interglacial) cycles, and was controlled mainly by the extent of sea ice distribution during the last 700 kyrs.