Using a coccolith weight analytic software(Particle Analyser), we analyze most abundant coccolith species in a sediment core from the central Western Pacific Warm Pool(WPWP) and calculate coccolith size and weight variations over the last 200 ka. These variations are compared with the trends of sea surface temperature(SST), primary productivity(PP), sea surface salinity(SSS), and insolation. Our results demonstrate that the size and weight of the coccoliths varied in response to variations of these factors, and their average total weight is primarily related to the relative abundance of the dominant species GEO(Gephyrocapsa oceanica). The variation in weight of EMI(Emiliania huxleyi) and GEE(Gephyrocapsa ericsonii) are mainly influenced by nutrients, and the variation of GEM(G. muellerae conformis) and GEO(G. oceanica) weight are mainly influenced by SST. For all of the taxa weight, PP and SST present apparent precession or semi-precession cycles, we consider that the mono-coccolith weight of the Equatorial Western Pacific is primarily affected by precession drived thermocline and nutricline variation.
Coccolith assemblages in two gravity cores(KX21-2 and KX12-1) from the central Western Pacific Warm Pool(WPWP) have been analyzed with SYRACO. The variations of nutricline and primary productivity(PP) have been reconstructed based on these assemblages. The results show that the coccolith assemblages were dominated by Florisphaera profunda, Gephyrocapsa and Emiliania huxleyi over the last 380 kyr. Variations of nutricline and primary productivity can be divided into three intervals. Interval I(about 380–300 kyr): PP was high and nutricline was shallow; Interval II(about 300–160 kyr): PP decreased dramatically for a short time after the acme of G. caribbeanica in Mid-Brunhes while nutricline became deeper; Interval III(about 160 kyr–present): PP fluctuated at low levels and nutricline was deep. Variations of each coccolith taxon and PP were highly correlated in the two cores, which means that the geological environment is similar in the two cores. Spectrum analysis is performed for all coccolith taxons and PP, and the 19-kyr cycle is the most prominent. It means that the production of coccolithophores in the WPWP is mainly controlled by precession.
