Reconstructing the biogeochemical response of Indonesian coastal ecosystems to environmental change during the late Quaternary as recorded by marine sediment cores along the Sumatra - Java - Flores transect (BIORESICO)

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Tim Jennerjahn
• Subject Area: Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
• Term: from 2010 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 180939063

Global climate change is a mosaic of regional changes to a large extent determined by region-specific feedbacks between climate and ecosystems. Therefore, the temporal/causal relationships between regional climates and ecosystems need to be investigated in order to further our process understanding related to global change. It is a prerequisite for improving predictions of future developments in a scenario of accelerated global change. Over the past decade it became obvious that the tropics play an important role in global climate change. This proposal focuses on the Indonesian archipelago, also termed the maritime continent. Although considered a key region only little information exists on past climate changes and the response of terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the proposed study area. There, changes in the monsoons, the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) have affected precipitation and vegetation on land and surface circulation and upwelling in the ocean and hence the deposition of marine and land-derived organic matter. Sediment cores from the Indian Ocean margin off the Indonesian islands Sumatra and Java to Flores collected during RV SONNE cruises SO-184 and SO-189 provide highresolution archives of environmental change during the late Quaternary. A suite of biogeochemical tools in combination with palynological and paleoceanographic information will allow to reconstruct the response of terrestrial and marine ecosystems to past climate change in that region.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants