van Dommelen, Nuri; McNally, Caitlin; Herbert, Timothy D: Plio-Pleistocene composite Alkenone, color reflectance, and oxygen isotope data from ODP Sites 175-1085 and 175-1087 [dataset bundled publication]. PANGAEA, https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.986690 (dataset in review)

We measured the unsaturation index (Uk'37) and concentration of C37 alkenones in sediment samples from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 175-1085 and 175-1087 to quantify the evolution of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and biological productivity (C37 Total) at the boundary between the Benguela Upwelling System (BUS) and Agulhas Current for the last 4 Ma. To calculate SSTs, we applied the linear core-top calibration of Müller et al. (1998, doi:10.1016/S0016-7037(98)00097-0). Alkenones were measured using a gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector, Agilent Technologies, 6890/8890 equipped with an Agilent RTX-200 column. C37 alkenone concentrations were quantified using internal standards of n-hexatricontane and n-heptatriacontane and were normalized to the dry mass of sediment extracted for each sample. In addition, we present a composite of color reflectance (L*) at both sites (data and method according to: Wefer et al., 1998, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.ir.175.101.1998) and a composite of previously measured benthic oxygen and carbon isotope data at ODP Site 1085 (data and method according to: Anderson et al. (2000, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.sr.175.201.2001); Lisiecki and Raymo (2005, doi:10.1029/2004PA001071); Tachikawa et al., 2021; doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106752). The two age models (LR04 and orbitally tuned) and 1087-to-1085 depth match are also included. The age models and adjusted depths were calculated using the Match code from Lisiecki and Lisiecki (2002, doi:10.1029/2001pa000733). Finally, the data used to produce the adjusted depth (mbsf) depth scale for the two sites are included. The adjusted depth scale minimizes the unrealistic growth of composite sections due to core expansion via compressing each core by the rate of expansion, and then fine tuning the compression and offset relative to driller's depth, while aligning key features of the offset holes- similar to the process used by Hodell et al. (2015, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2015.07.002).