[1] We used planktic foraminiferal assemblages in 70 sediment cores from the tropical and subtropical South Atlantic Ocean (10°N–37°S) to estimate annual mean sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and seasonality for the Last Glacial Maximum with a modified version of the Imbrie-Kipp transfer function method (IKTF) that takes into account the abundance of rare but temperature sensitive species. In contrast to CLIMAP Project Members [1981], the reconstructed SSTs indicate cooler glacial SSTs in the entire tropical/subtropical South Atlantic with strongest cooling in the upwelling region off Namibia (7–10°C) and smallest cooling (1–2°C) in the western subtropical gyre. In the western Atlantic, our data support recent temperature estimates from other proxies. In the upwelling regions in the eastern Atlantic, our data conflict with SST reconstructions from alkenones, which may be due to an environmental preference of the alkenone-producing algae or to an underestimation of foraminiferal SSTs due to anomalous high abundances of N. pachyderma (sinistral).

Supplement to: Niebler, Hans-Stefan; Arz, Helge Wolfgang; Donner, Barbara; Mulitza, Stefan; Pätzold, Jürgen; Wefer, Gerold (2003): Sea surface temperatures in the equatorial and South Atlantic Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (23–19 ka). Paleoceanography, 18(3), 1069