The Australian Geological Survey Organisation has collected cores from two areas of the Australian continental margin- the Exmouth Plateau and Perth Basin (EP/PB) in the southeastern Indian Ocean off western Australia, and the Ceduna Terrace (CT) in the Great Australian Bight Data from seven EP/PB cores provide evidence of glacial- interglacial changes in surface ocean productivity in this region. Sediment accumulation rates and the accumulation rates of biogenic sediment components (CaCO3 and organic carbon) during the last glacial maximum (LGM, roughly 20,000 years ago) were 1.5- 2 times higher than during the Holocene. Likewise, benthic foraminiferal abundances and accumulation rates are higher in glacial sediments, as is the concentration of authigenic uranium. These data all suggest that the glacial productivity off Western Australia was elevated relative to Holocene values. Benthic foraminiferal stable isotope data from the EP/PB cores and from seven CT cores provide records of changes in intermediate and deep water chemistry in these regions since the LGM. Reconstructed LGM 13C profiles show that the deep southeastern Indian Ocean did not experience the strong glacial 13C depletion observed in the deep north Indian Ocean and in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean.
