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A diatom–conductivity transfer function for reconstructing past changes in the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds over the Southern Ocean
Author(s) -
SAUNDERS KRYSTYNA M.,
HODGSON DOMINIC A.,
MCMURTRIE SHELLEY,
GROSJEAN MARTIN
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/jqs.2788
Subject(s) - diatom , southern hemisphere , geology , oceanography , plateau (mathematics) , westerlies , conductivity , climatology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , chemistry
Sub‐Antarctic islands are ideally placed to reconstruct past changes in Southern Hemisphere westerly wind behaviour. They lie within their core belt (50–60°S) and the strong winds deliver sea salt ions to the islands resulting in a west to east conductivity gradient in their water bodies. This means that the stronger (or weaker) the winds, the higher (or lower) the conductivity values measured in the water bodies. A survey of the water chemistry and diatom assemblages of lakes and ponds on sub‐Antarctic Campbell Island (52°32′S, 169°8′E) revealed that, similar to other sub‐Antarctic islands, conductivity was the most important, statistically significant ecological variable explaining turnover in diatom community structure. Based on this, a diatom–conductivity transfer function was developed (simple weighted averaging with inverse deshrinking: R 2 = 0.86, R 2 jack = 0.66, RMSEP = 0.25 log 10 μS cm −1 ). This transfer function will be applied to lake sediment cores from the western edge of the Campbell Island plateau to reconstruct past conductivity/sea spray and therefore directly reconstruct changes in Southern Hemisphere westerly wind strength within their core belt.