Collaborative Research: A High Resolution Study of Sea Surface Temperature Variability in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Funding is requested to conduct a high resolution study of late Pleistocene and Holocene ocean temperature and hydrographic variability archived in deep sea cores collected in 1998 within the Indo-Pacific warm pool region as part of the international paleoceanographic project IMAGES. This project will produce the first records of climate variability in the tropical warm pool region at resolutions high enough for direct comparison with both high and low latitude ice core records. This will allow testing of the hypothesis that the warm pool did not cool more than 2 degrees C during the last glacial. A Multiproxy (staple isotope, alkenone, Mg/CA) approach will be used to reconstruct sea surface temperatures, as well as deep and intermediate water temperatures for the last 150kyr.