Rekonstrukcje paleotemperatur w strefie Frontu Polarnego Oceanu Południowego (sektor atlantycki) na podstawie środkowo-górnoplejstoceńskich promienic z odwiertu ODP Leg 177 Site 1091

Quantitative analysis of radiolarian assemblages, carried out at the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 177 Site 1091 (Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean), provides a well-established summer sea surface temperature (SSST) record from the Polar Front Zone extending back into the Middle Pleistocene at orbital- -submillennial resolution. In order to estimate the SSST, the Imbrie & Kipp method (IKM) and the artificial neural network (ANN) were applied. The SSST records derived from the IKM and ANN display close similarities in paleotemperature fluctuations, amplitudes and absolute values. The ANN-derived SSST estimations display a pattern of slightly more distinct warm events that is closest to the records obtained from EDC (EPICA Dome C) ice cores and ODP Site 1090. The warm events indicate a distinct shift in the extent of the Southern Ocean cold water sphere that must have affected the ocean–atmosphere–ice field interactions and the configuration of high-latitude wind fields. Consistently with the global trend of paleotemperature fluctuation, the SSST record is marked by a distinct shift from low to high glacial/interglacial variability around Termination V. Prior to Termination V, the SSST displays coldest values and low variability. It points to a distinct expansion of the Southern Ocean cold water masses and positional changes of hydrographical fronts during most of the lower Middle Pleistocene.