(Table 1) Helium and Thorium 230 excess concentrations in sediment cores B18 and B25

At four sites in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean the flux of extraterrestrial 3He, determined using the excess 230Th profiling method, is 8 * 10**-13 cm**3 STP/cm**2/ka. This supply rate is constant to within 30%. At these same sites, however, the burial rate of 3He, determined using chronostratigraphic accumulation rates, varies by more than a factor of 3. The lowest burial rates, which occur north of the equator at 1°N, 139°W are lower than the global average rate of supply of extraterrestrial 3He by 20% and indicate that sediment winnowing may have occurred. The highest burial rates, which are recorded at the equator and at 2°S, are higher than the rate of supply of extraterrestrial 3He by 100%, and these provide evidence for sediment focusing. By analyzing several proxies measured in core PC72 sediments spanning the past 450 kyr we demonstrate that periods of maximum burial rates of 230Th, 3He, 10Be, Ti, and barite, with a maximum peak-to-trough amplitude of a factor of 6, take place systematically during glacial time. However, the ratio of any one proxy to another is constant to within 30% over the entire length of the records. Given that each proxy represents a different source (234U decay in seawater, interplanetary dust, upper atmosphere, continental dust, or upper ocean), our preferred interpretation for the covariation is that the climate-related changes in burial rates are driven by changes in sediment focusing.

Nitrogen fixation and nitrogen gene abundance of METEOR cruises M77/3 and M77/4

Nitrogen fixation, the biological reduction of dinitrogen gas (N2) to ammonium (NH4+), is quantitatively the most important external source of new nitrogen (N) to the open ocean. Classically, the ecological niche of oceanic N2 fixers (diazotrophs) is ascribed to tropical oligotrophic surface waters, often depleted in fixed N, with a diazotrophic community dominated by cyanobacteria. Although this applies for large areas of the ocean, biogeochemical models and phylogenetic studies suggest that the oceanic diazotrophic niche may be much broader than previously considered, resulting in major implications for the global N-budget. Here, we report on the composition, distribution and abundance of nifH, the functional gene marker for N2 fixation. Our results show the presence of eight clades of diazotrophs in the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) off Peru. Although proteobacterial clades dominated overall, two clusters affiliated to spirochaeta and archaea were identified. N2 fixation was detected within OMZ waters and was stimulated by the addition of organic carbon sources supporting the view that non-phototrophic diazotrophs were actively fixing dinitrogen. The observed co-occurrence of key functional genes for N2 fixation, nitrification, anammox and denitrification suggests that a close spatial coupling of N-input and N-loss processes exists in the OMZ off Peru. The wide distribution of diazotrophs throughout the water column adds to the emerging view that the habitat of marine diazotrophs can be extended to low oxygen/high nitrate areas. Furthermore, our statistical analysis suggests that NO2- and PO43- are the major factors affecting diazotrophic distribution throughout the OMZ. In view of the predicted increase in ocean deoxygenation resulting from global warming, our findings indicate that the importance of OMZs as niches for N2 fixation may increase in the futur

(Table 1) Helium isotope ratios of sediment core TT013_114

We present a helium isotope record for core TT013-114PC from the central equatorial Pacific (140°W, 4°N, 4432 m water depth) spanning a period of 1 million years. We focus on the time interval from 560 to 800 kyr, largely coinciding with the mid-Pleistocene climate transition (MPT) when the dominant period of the Earth's climate variability shifted from 41 kyr to 100 kyr. The terrigenous 4He concentrations from our study correlate very well with published titanium concentrations in this core strongly supporting the use of terrigenous 4He as a monitor of continental dust. Normalizing titanium and terrigenous 4He concentrations to 3He suggests that the dust supply during the MPT was approximately 30% lower compared to the subsequent period (560-100 kyr). The 3He-normalized barium, aluminum and phosphorus concentrations, trace elements with a predominantly biogenic source in these sediments, are relatively constant. This is in contrast to previous studies that reported an apparent rise of titanium-normalized productivity proxies. Rather than a significant increase in productivity during the MPT, we conclude that the dust flux to the central equatorial Pacific was reduced and that the export productivity was approximately constant during this period of climate reorganization.