Description: Arabian Sea sediments record changes in the upwelling system off Arabia, which is driven by the monsoon circulation system over the NW Indian Ocean. In accordance with climate models, and differing from other large upwelling areas of the tropical ocean, a 500,000-yr record of productivity at ODP Site 723 shows consistently stronger upwelling during interglaciations than during glaciations. Sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) reconstructed from the alkenone unsaturation index (U K′ 37) are high (up to 27°C) during interglaciations and low (22-24°C) during glaciations, indicating a glacial-interglacial temperature change of 〉3°C in spite of the dampening effect of enhanced or weakened upwelling. The increased productivity is attributed to stronger monsoon winds during interglacial times relative to glacial times, whereas the difference in SSTs must be unrelated to upwelling and to the summer monsoon intensity. The winter (NE) monsoon was more effective in cooling the Arabian Sea during glaciations then it is now.

Description: The post-middle Miocene evolution of sedimentary patterns in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean has been deduced from a compilation and synthesis of CaCO3, opal, and nannofossil assemblage data from 11 sites drilled during Leg 138. Improvements in stratigraphic correlation and time scale development enabled the construction of lithostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic frameworks of exceptional quality. These frameworks, and the high sedimentation rates (often exceeding 4 cm/k.y.) provided a detailed and synoptic paleoceanographic view of a large and highly productive region. The three highlights that emerge are: (1) a middle late Miocene "carbonate crash" (Lyle et al., this volume); (2) a late Miocene-early Pliocene "biogenic bloom"; and (3) an early Pliocene "opal shift". During the carbonate crash, an interval of dissolution extending from -11.2 to 7.5 Ma, CaCO3 accumulation rates declined to near zero over much of the eastern equatorial Pacific, whereas opal accumulation rates remained substantially unchanged. The crash nadir, near 9.5 Ma, was marked by a brief shoaling of the regional carbonate compensation depth by more than 1400 m. The carbonate crash has been correlated over the entire tropical Pacific Ocean, and has been attributed to tectonically-induced changes in abyssal flow through the Panamanian seaway. The biogenic bloom extended from 6.7 to 4.5 Ma, and was characterized by an overall increase in biogenic accumulation and by a steepening of the latitudinal accumulation gradient toward the equator. The bloom has been observed over a large portion of the global ocean and has been linked to increased productivity. The final highlight, is a distinct and permanent shift in the locus of maximum opal mass accumulation rate at 4.4 Ma. This shift was temporally, and perhaps causally, linked to the final closure of the Panamanian seaway. Before 4.4 Ma, opal accumulation was greatest in the eastern equatorial Pacific Basin (near 0°N, 107°W). Since then, the highest opal fluxes in the equatorial Pacific have occurred in the Galapagos region (near 3°S, 92°W).

Description: We analyzed the unsaturation ratio (Uk37) of long-chain ketones - a molecular sea-surface temperature (SST) indicator û concentrations of carbonate and organic carbon in sediments from Site 846 in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Based on an isotopic age model for the composite depth section of 0-46 m below seafloor and on estimates of sediment density, accumulation rates of these biogenic compounds were calculated. Our combined temperature and biogenic flux record traces conditions at the origin of the South Equatorial Current over the last 1.3 m.y. SSTs have fluctuated considerably over the interval studied. A long trend of gradual decrease from 24°C at 1.3 Ma ends between 500 and 400 Ka, when lowest values of 19°C were reached. Since this time, the temperature data indicate a warming trend to the Holocene modulated by high-amplitude variation (19° to 27°C). The inversion of the trend between 400 and 500 Ka coincides with maximal accumulation rates of carbonate, which since then have decreased. In contrast, organic carbon accumulation since then has increased in variability and in absolute values. On shorter time scales, the records show a strong link to the global climatic background. Since 1.3 Ma, carbonate (0.2-3 g/cm**2/k.y.) and organic carbon accumulation rates (2-30 mg/cm**2/k.y.) were consistently high (more than twice their modern values and those of interglacials) during glacial maxima in the benthic isotope record, when temperatures were low. However, cross-spectral analyses with the d18O record suggest that variation in organic carbon flux is not linked directly to variations in SST. Temperature maxima in our record led interglacial events by 7 k.y. in the 100-k.y. eccentricity cycle and by 5 k.y. in the 41-k.y. obliquity cycle. In contrast, maxima in organic carbon accumulation lag behind glacial maxima and low temperatures by 14 k.y. in the eccentricity cycle. On glacial/interglacial time scales, a prominent influence on SST - but not on organic carbon burial - at Site 846 appears to be the advection of cold water into the South Equatorial Current.