Abstract We present a multi-proxy study of sediment Core 905 from the Arabian Sea offshore Somalia to assess the validity of a number of proxies for productivity, temperature and wind strength, to reconstruct the monsoon history in the western Arabian Sea. The present-day seasonal variation in productivity in the modern Arabian Sea off Somalia reflects the change from the high-productivity SW monsoon to the low-productivity NE monsoon seasons. Annual productivity is therefore largely controlled by SW monsoon driven upwelling. The geochemical records of Core 905 document millennial-scale variations, for example, in Ba/Al and C org content. The Younger Dryas and the time equivalent period to Heinrich event 1 show low annual productivity whereas the early Holocene and Bølling-Allerød periods are characterized by high productivity. The upwelling-productivity peaked during Early Holocene time and was followed by a decrease toward the modern values. The total flux of planktic foraminifera and the concentration of the planktic foraminifera G. bulloides are not always controlled by the total productivity. Variations in calcite dissolution, the advection of expatriate fauna or a seasonal decoupling of primary and secondary production appear to hamper straightforward interpretations of those foraminifera records. We conclude that at significantly changed climatic boundary conditions compared with the present day, bulk-sediment-related proxies of productivity more consistently record the local upwelling history than foraminifer-based productivity proxies.

Abstract The northern Arabian Sea is at present characterized by a pronounced oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) with oxygen concentrations reaching values as low as 2 μm between 150 and 1250 m. This intense mid-water OMZ results from high annual organic particle fluxes and a moderate rate of thermocline ventilation. Sediment studies have shown that the intensity of the northern Arabian Sea OMZ has fluctuated on Milankovitch and sub-Milankovitch time scales, in conjunction with changes in either surface water productivity or thermocline ventilation. Here we evaluate the role of convective mixing in the periodical breakdown of the OMZ by reconstructing the density gradient for periods showing a well-ventilated water column. For this reason we reconstructed sea surface temperatures and salinities for the last 70 ka based on alkenone thermometry and δ 18 O analyses on planktic and benthic foraminifers. For the studied time span thermocline ventilation by intermediate water formation in the northern Arabian Sea is a viable mechanism to explain observed fluctuations in the intensity of the OMZ. We postulate that the necessary decrease in the vertical density gradient during well-ventilated periods resulted from intensified winter monsoonal winds in combination with effects caused by glacio-eustacy.