Mid-Pleistocene benthic foraminiferal record in the Southwest Pacific

Canonical correspondence analyses show that factors related to water depth, latitude and climate cycles were more significant than oceanographic factors in determining changes in faunal assemblage composition over the last 1 Ma.

Even so, mid-Pleistocene faunal changes are recognizable and can be linked to inferred palaeoceanographic causes. North of the largely stationary STF the faunas were less variable than to the south, perhaps reflecting the less extreme glacial-interglacial fluctuations in the overlying Subtropical Surface Water. Prior to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 21 and after MIS 15, the northern faunas had fairly constant composition, but during most of the MPT faunal composition fluctuated in response to climate-related food-supply variations.