Radiolarian transfer function for paleo-primary productivity in the South China Sea

Basic data of radiolarian group and primary productivity were from 46 investigation stations of the South China Sea. The factor analysis of principal component and the least squares estimation in both linear regression and nonlinear estimation were applied to establishing the radiolarian transfer function for paleo-primary productivity in this sea area. The results show that the transfer function of nonlinear regression analysis for the radiolarian assemblage and primary productivity has much better parameters. Factors analysis has accumulating variance of 83.6% and communalities of more than 0.940347. Nonlinear regression analysis gives multiple correlation coefficient as 0.84888 and explained variance as 72.059%. The equation of transfer function is with an average estimated error of about 53.778 mg · C/m² · d, which is 14.69% in average observed values. Calculation accuracy is 85.31% for the system of transfer function.