A late quaternary history of Agulhas-Benguela interactions from two sediment cores on the western continental slope of South Africa

Includes bibliographical references.Changes in circulation and productivity in the southeastern South Atlantic Ocean over the last 850 kyr are investigated through the multiproxy study of two giant piston cores, MD962080 and MD962084, retrieved from the Agulhas Bank and Olifants River continental slopes of South Africa. The stable oxygen isotope record of the benthic foraminifer, Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi, and the planktonic taxon, Globorotalia inflata, provide the stratigraphic framework from which the age models were created. The results indicate that biotic responses to surface hydrological changes in the study area are complex and involve both high- and low-frequency variations