Precessional control on ocean productivity in the Western Pacific Warm Pool for the last 400 kyr: Insight from biogenic magnetite

The Western Pacific Warm Pool plays a significant role in large-scale atmospheric circulation and global hydrology. We conducted an environmental magnetic study of two late Pleistocene sediment cores from the western equatorial Pacific Ocean offshore of New Guinea in order to better constrain climatic and oceanographic variability, particularly spatiotemporal ocean productivity variations. Magnetic property measurements and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the magnetic mineral assemblages in the studied sediments are a mixture of biogenic and terrigenous magnetite. Variations in the acid soluble sediment component, interpreted as carbonate content, and the proportion of biogenic to terrigenous magnetite estimated from the ratio of anhysteretic to saturation remanent magnetizations are in-phase with northern hemisphere summer insolation variations. We interpret that ocean productivity increased during insolation maxima, which induced higher populations of magnetotactic bacteria through a larger nutrient supply to the seafloor. This interpretation assumes that magnetotactic bacterial populations are greatest in sediments just below the seafloor. Precessional frequencies in magnetic mineral concentration variations are suppressed after correction for carbonate dilution, whereas cyclic changes with a ∼100 kyr periodicity remain in carbonate-free magnetic concentration variations. Glacial/interglacial changes in bottom water currents may have influenced transportation and deposition of magnetic minerals. We demonstrate the usefulness of magnetic proxies for paleoceanographic studies, particularly of biogenic magnetite proxies for estimating paleoproductivity variations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.