Impact of lateral transport on organic proxies in the Southern Ocean

Lateral transport of fine-grained organic carbon particles can complicate the interpretation of paleoclimate records based on organic proxies. Here we investigated the effect of lateral transport on newly developed temperature and soil organic matter proxies, TEXs(86), and BIT index, respectively, in core MD88-769 recovered from the South East Indian Ridge. Our results show that TEX86 and BIT records in comparison to diatom and foraminifera records were representative for more local climate changes while alkenones and n-alkanes originated from distant areas by oceanic and atmospheric transport, respectively. This suggests that TEX86 and BIT paleoclimate records are primarily influenced by local conditions and less subjected to long-distance lateral transport than other organic proxies in the Southern Ocean. (c) 2008 University of Washington. All rights reserved.