Open Ocean and coastal phytoplankton communities of of Western Antarctic Peninsula and Drake Passage waters

Photophysiological processes as well as uptake characteristics of iron and inorganic carbon were studied in inshore phytoplankton assemblages of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and offshore assemblages of the Drake Passage. Chlorophyll a concentrations and primary productivity decreased from in- to offshore waters. The inverse relationship between low maximum quantum yields of photochemistry in PSII (Fv/Fm) and large sizes of functional absorption cross sections (sigma PSII) in offshore communities indicated iron-limitation. Congruently, the negative correlation between Fv/Fm values and iron uptake rates across our sampling locations suggest an overall better iron uptake capacity in iron-limited pelagic phytoplankton communities. Highest iron uptake capacities could be related to relative abundances of the haptophyte Phaeocystis antarctica. As chlorophyll a-specific concentrations of humic-like substances were similarly high in offshore and inshore stations, we suggest humic-like substances may play an important role in iron chemistry in both coastal and pelagic phytoplankton assemblages. Regarding inorganic carbon uptake kinetics, the measured maximum short-term uptake rates (Vmax(CO2)) and apparent half-saturation constants (K1/2(CO2)) did not differ between offshore and inshore phytoplankton. Moreover, Vmax(CO2) and K1/2(CO2) did not exhibit any CO2-dependent trend over the natural pCO2 range from 237 to 507 µatm. K1/2(CO2) strongly varied among the sampled phytoplankton communities, ranging between 3.5 and 35.3 µmol/L CO2. While in many of the sampled phytoplankton communities, the operation of carbon-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) was indicated by low K1/2(CO2) values relative to ambient CO2 concentrations, some coastal sites exhibited higher values, suggesting down-regulated CCMs. Overall, our results demonstrate a complex interplay between photophysiological processes, iron and carbon uptake of phytoplankton communities of the WAP and the Drake Passage.

Neodymium isotope record of ODP Site 177-1090

Age estimates for the opening of Drake Passage range from 49 to 17 million years ago (Ma), complicating interpretations of the relationship between ocean circulation and global cooling. Secular variations of neodymium isotope ratios at Agulhas Ridge (Southern Ocean, Atlantic sector) suggest an influx of shallow Pacific seawater approximately 41 Ma. The timing of this connection and the subsequent deepening of the passage coincide with increased biological productivity and abrupt climate reversals. Circulation/productivity linkages are proposed as a mechanism for declining atmospheric carbon dioxide. These results also indicate that Drake Passage opened before the Tasmanian Gateway, implying the late Eocene establishment of a complete circum-Antarctic pathway.

Age models, sedimentology and geochemistry from sediment cores in Drake Passage throughflow

The Drake Passage (DP) is the major geographic constriction for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and exerts a strong control on the exchange of physical, chemical, and biological properties between the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean basins. Resolving changes in the flow of circumpolar water masses through this gateway is, therefore, crucial for advancing our understanding of the Southern Ocean's role in global ocean and climate variability. Here, we reconstruct changes in DP throughflow dynamics over the past 65,000 y based on grain size and geochemical properties of sediment records from the southernmost continental margin of South America. Combined with published sediment records from the Scotia Sea, we argue for a considerable total reduction of DP transport and reveal an up to ~40% decrease in flow speed along the northernmost ACC pathway entering the DP during glacial times. Superimposed on this long-term decrease are high-amplitude, millennial-scale variations, which parallel Southern Ocean and Antarctic temperature patterns. The glacial intervals of strong weakening of the ACC entering the DP imply an enhanced export of northern ACC surface and intermediate waters into the South Pacific Gyre and reduced Pacific-Atlantic exchange through the DP ("cold water route"). We conclude that changes in DP throughflow play a critical role for the global meridional overturning circulation and interbasin exchange in the Southern Ocean, most likely regulated by variations in the westerly wind field and changes in Antarctic sea ice extent.

Mineralogy and isotope chemistry of GISP2 and potential source areas

Samples of dust from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) ice core, Summit, Greenland, dated within marine isotope stage 2 (between 23,340 and 26,180 calendar years B.P.) around the time of the coldest, local, last glacial temperatures, have been analyzed to determine their provenance. To accomplish this, we have compared them with approximately Coeval aeolian sediments (mostly loesses) sampled in possible source areas (PSAs) from around the northern hemisphere. The <5-µm grain-size fraction of these samples was analyzed on the basis that it corresponds to the atmospheric dust component of that time and locale, which was sufficiently fine grained to be transported over long distances. On the basis of comparison of the clay mineralogy and Sr, Nd and Pb isotope composition with ice dust and PSAs and assuming that we have sampled the most important PSAs, we have determined that the probable source area of these GISP2 dusts was in eastern Asia. The dust was not derived from either the midcontinental United States or the Sahara, two more proximal areas that have been suggested as potential sources based on atmospheric circulation modeling. Except for a brief period during an interstadial, when dust transport was exceptionally low (for glacial times) and had a mineralogical composition indicative of a slightly more southern provenance, the source area of the dust did not change significantly during times of variably higher fluxes of dust with larger mean grain size or lower fluxes of dust with smaller mean grain size. This includes the high-dust period that correlates with the Heinrich 2 period of major iceberg discharge into the North Atlantic. Variable wind strengths must therefore be invoked to account for these abrupt and significant changes in dust flux and grain size.