Search

The molecular work was funded by an Advanced Fellowship award to K. Darling (UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); NER/J/S/2000/00860 and NE/D009707/1). This work was also supported by European Research Council (ERC) through a research grant to H. Elderfield. A.D.S. acknowledges support from the Indian Space Research Organization through an ISRO-GBP grant sanctioned in 2008. P. Anand is thankful for NERC support (NE/I019891/1). Planktonic foraminifera record oceanic conditions in their shell geochemistry. Many palaeoenvironmental studies have used fossil planktonic foraminifera to constrain past seawater properties by defining species based on their shell morphology. Recent genetic studies, however, have identified ecologically distinct genotypes within traditionally recognized morphospecies, signaling potential repercussions for palaeoclimate reconstructions. Here we demonstrate how the presence of Globigerina bulloides cryptic genotypes in the Arabian Sea may influence geochemical signals of living and fossil assemblages of these morphospecies. We have identified two distinct genotypes of G. bulloides with either cool water (type-II) or warm water (type-I) temperature preferences in the Western Arabian Sea. We accompany these genetic studies with analyses of Mg/Ca and stable oxygen isotope (δ18O) compositions of individual G. bulloides shells. Both Mg/Ca and δ18O values display bimodal distribution patterns. The distribution of Mg/Ca values cannot be simply explained by seawater parameters, and we attribute it to genotype-specific biological controls on the shell geochemistry. The wide range of δ18O values in the fossil assemblage also suggests that similar controls likely influence this proxy in addition to environmental parameters. However, the magnitude of this effect on the δ18O signals is not clear from our data set, and further work is needed to clarify this. We also discuss current evidence of potential genotype-specific geochemical signals in published data on G. bulloides geochemistry and other planktonic foraminiferal species. We conclude that significant caution should be taken when utilizing G. bulloides geochemistry for paleoclimate reconstruction in the regions with upwelling activity or oceanographic fronts. Publisher PDF

Productivity in the Arabian Sea is one of the highest in the world. It is controlled by seasonally reversing monsoonal wind-driven upwelling of nutrient-rich deeper waters which fuel phytoplankton growth. The detailed history of upwelling-induced productivity in the eastern Arabian Sea is unknown. Here we present paleoproductivity records from a composite sediment core at the millennial scale during the last 80 kyr B. P. These records are based on relative abundance counts of planktonic foraminifera and organic carbon contents, which are shown to mainly vary in concert. The eastern Arabian Sea upwelling-induced productivity was higher in the glacial period than in the Holocene, but it fell repeatedly on millennial timescales. These productivity declines occurred during cold events in the North Atlantic region, with the most pronounced changes prevailing during the Heinrich events. Hence, seasonal monsoon winds that drive upwelling-induced productivity in the east were weak when the North Atlantic was cold. These weak winds resulted in stratification of the water column, comparable to today's Arabian Sea stratification in the intermonsoonal period. Combining the new eastern with published western Arabian Sea results shows that the entire biological factory was severely diminished during the North Atlantic Heinrich events, and the seasonal productivity change in the Arabian Sea monsoon system was reduced with year-round low productivity.