Changing marine productivity off northern Chile during the past 19 000 years: a multivariable approach

A multivariable approach utilising bulk sediment, planktonic Foraminifera and siliceous phytoplankton has been used to reconstruct rapid variations in palaeoproductivity in the Peru–Chile Current System off northern Chile for the past 19 000 cal. yr. During the early deglaciation (19 000–16 000 cal. yr BP), our data point to strongest upwelling intensity and highest productivity of the past 19 000 cal. yr. The late deglaciation (16 000–13 000 cal. yr BP) is characterised by a major change in the oceanographic setting, warmer water masses and weaker upwelling at the study site. Lowest productivity and weakest upwelling intensity are observed from the early to the middle Holocene (13 000–4000 cal. yr BP), and the beginning of the late Holocene (<4000 cal. yr BP) is marked by increasing productivity, mainly driven by silicate‐producing organisms. Changes in the productivity and upwelling intensity in our record may have resulted from a large‐scale compression and/or displacement of the South Pacific subtropical gyre during more productive periods, in line with a northward extension of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and increased advection of Antarctic water masses with the Peru–Chile Current. The corresponding increase in hemispheric thermal gradient and wind stress induced stronger upwelling. During the periods of lower productivity, this scenario probably reversed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.