Project Details
Projekt
Decadal- to orbital-scale climate variability in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool during the past ca. 650,000 years
Applicant
Professor Dr. Martin Melles
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2014 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 252951314
The investigations proposed within the scope of this renewal proposal contribute to the ICDP funded ´Towuti Drilling Project´ (TDP) in Indonesia. They apply to the entire, ~137 m thick and presumably 650,000 years old lake sediment record that was drilled in spring 2015 at TDP site 2 in Lake Towuti, which is located on Sulawesi Island in the center of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool. Multidisciplinary chronostratigraphical, sedimentological, geochemical, and mineralogical analyses shall be carried out on the core composite, in order (i) to contribute to the dating of the sediment record, (ii) to decipher the long-term development of Lake Towuti, with its formation and the onset of riverine input from other Malili lakes, (iii) to reconstruct the precipitation-controlled riverine inflow from the Mahalano River during the past ~80,000 years with up to decadal resolution, (iv) to identify the dimension and potential reasons for lake-level fluctuations in Towuti, (v) to provide input to the understanding of the variability in mixing and stratification of Towuti, and (vi) to contribute to the reconstruction of weathering conditions and soil erosion in the lake´s catchment. This research shall be supported by the investigation of surface sediment samples, which were recovered during the drilling campaign and which provide important information on modern sedimentation processes. The project thus promises partly unique paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological data that complement respective research by other international projects on Lake Towuti, and important background information for the associated biological projects.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
