BENGUELA COASTAL UPWELLING SYSTEM: ITS RESPONSES TO LOCAL AND GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGES

Carcans, 19 -21 April, 2000

This IMAGES sponsored workshop was motivated by the two recent research cruises NAUSICAA/IMAGES 2 (1996) and ODP Leg 175 (1997) which recovered a series of continuous sedimentary sections along the upper and lower slope off South Africa, Namibia, and Angola. As such, this meeting provided the first opportunity to gather 50 paleoceanographers presently involved in the study of deep sea drilling (ODP) and giant piston coring (IMAGES) material.

Although additional works are needed to fulfill the primary goals of both research cruises, the exciting up-to-date developments presented in Carcans and future collaborations initiated hereafter suggest that we are getting closer to an integrated view of the productivity history of the Benguela upwelling system, and of the interrelationships between the evolution of this regional ecosystem and global changes (climate, sea-level, thermo-haline circulation and atmospheric CO2).

The 38 contributions covered a wide range of topics organised within three main research areas:

- The sedimentary record of biogenic production: upwelling intensity, diagenetic processes, relation with orbital cycles.

- The past dynamics of the Agulhas retroflection and Subtropical Convergence at the polar end of the Benguela ecosystem.

- Interhemispheric and interoceanic relationships in coastal upwelling process and upper deep water circulation changes.

Chairing of the various session was handled by leading marine geologists in the study of the Benguela region and other related systems, namely Wolgang Berger (Scripps I. O.), Gerold Wefer (Bremen Univ.), Tom Pedersen (Univ. British Columbia), Phil Meyers (Univ. Michigan), and John Rogers (Univ. Cape Town).

Proceedings of this workshop will be published by mid 2001 as a special issue of "Marine Geology" co-edited by Jacques Giraudeau (Univ. Bordeaux I) and Beth Christensen (Furman Univ.).

Abstracts of the "Benguela" workshop in Carcans can be obtained by request from Jacques Giraudeau or viewed here.