Synergic role of frontal migration and silicic acid concentration in driving diatom productivity in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean over the past 350 ka

Abstract

The glacial-interglacial siliceous productivity in the Sub-Antarctic Zone (SAZ) of the Southern Ocean (SO) has been proposed to respond to higher dust-bearing iron fluxes and/or basin-wide increased nutrient supply to surface waters. However, long records of diatom productivity are mainly obtained from the Atlantic and Pacific sectors of the SO. We present a new diatom productivity record from the SAZ of the western Indian sector of the SO, where the Antarctic Circumpolar Current strongly interacts with bottom topography to create a productivity hotspot, during the last four glacial-interglacial cycles. Our results show that regional changes in diatom productivity did not follow a glacial-interglacial pattern. It was highest during the Marine Isotope stage (MIS) 6 and MIS4, lowest during MIS10-MIS8 and MIS3-MIS1, whereas intermediate diatom productivity was found during MIS7 and MIS5. Multi-millennial events of high diatom productivity were scattered throughout both the glacial and interglacial periods. Both long-term and rapid diatom productivity changes in the region were disconnected from dust flux changes, but might relate to frontal migrations and SO upwelling intensity changes which have both mediated the silica and iron availability for diatoms. Importantly, our data suggest that front migrations were not homogenous in the SO, especially where these fronts interact with bottom topography. The peculiarity of these productivity hotspots must be considered when drawing SO-wide carbon balance in the past.