In view of this, we here study the variations in the values of δ18O and δ13C of the calcareous tests of the planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides in surface sediment

samples collected buy NVP-BKM120 along a north-south transect from latitude 9.69°N to 55.01°S in an attempt to understand the influence of the various frontal systems operating in the study area. A total of 25 surface sediment samples (comprising Peterson Grab, Gravity and Piston core top samples) were collected on board ORV Sagar Kanya during her 199th and 200th cruises along a N-S transect between latitudes 9.69°N and 55.01°S and longitudes 80°E and 40°E ( Figure 1, Table 1) of the Southern Ocean (Indian sector). The study area lies above the general lysocline and Carbonate Compensation Depth (CCD) reported in this region below 4400–4700 m water depth ( Banakar et al. 1998), thus the possibility of any

dissolution effect on planktonic foraminifera this website can be ruled out. The planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides has been reported as a thermocline dweller ( Bée & Tolderlund 1971). The thermocline in our study area has been reported to vary within the range of 75–150 m ( Anilkumar et al. 2005). All the sediment samples (top 1 cm of the sediment core/grab) were immediately stained with Rose Bengal and preserved in 10% formalin to differentiate living specimens of benthic foraminifera. Even though all possible efforts were made to collect surface sediments so as to sample recent sediments, we believe that at a few locations, slightly older sediments may have been collected. Without the exact dating of these sediment samples, the presence of living benthic foraminiferal specimens at various stations may be considered an indicator of modern ambient conditions. All the sediment samples were processed using standard procedures ( Khare & Chaturvedi 2006). G. bulloides (a non-symbiotic planktonic species) was selected for oxygen and carbon isotope analyses of its tests because of its ubiquitous presence in all the samples. 10–12 specimens

of G. bulloides were selected and thoroughly PAK6 cleaned, then analysed through a Finnigan MAT 251 isotope ratio gas mass spectrometer, which was coupled to an automatic carbonate preparation device (Kiel I) and calibrated via NBS 19 to the PDB scale at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany. The values are given in δ notation versus VPDB (Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite). The precision of the oxygen isotope measurements based on repeated analyses of a laboratory standard over a one-year period was better than 0.09% for oxygen. Similarly, the precision of the carbon isotope measurements based on repeated analyses of a laboratory standard over a one-year period was better than 0.06%. The average annual temperature and salinity data at 75 m water depth across the transect of the study area was obtained from the dataset in Levitus et al. (1994). The minimum value of δ18O was − 2.