Nematode absolute densities and genus counts from four stations near the Antarctic Peninsula, collected with a multicorer device during POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXIX/3 in January-March 2013

Marine free-living nematode communities were studied at similar depths (~500m) at two sides of the Antarctic Peninsula, characterised by different environmental and oceanographic conditions. At the Weddell Sea side, benthic communities are influenced by cold deep-water formation and seasonal sea-ice conditions, whereas the Drake Passage side experiences milder oceanic conditions and strong dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Surface primary productivity contrasted with observed benthic pigment patterns and varied according to the area studied: chlorophyll a concentrations (as a proxy for primary production) were high in the Weddell Sea sediments, but low in the surface waters above; this pattern was reversed in the Drake Passage. Differences between areas were largely mirrored by the nematode communities: nematode densities peaked in Weddell stations and showed deeper vertical occurrence in the sediment, associated with deeper penetration of chlorophyll a. Generic composition did not differ markedly between both areas, but rather showed distinct community shifts with depth in the sediment.

Biogenic opal, carbonat concentrations and stable oxygen isotope ratios of foraminifera from sediment cores of the Southern Ocean

We present records of biogenic opal percentage and burial rate in 12 piston cores from the Atlantic and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean. These records provide a detailed, quantitative description of changing patterns of opal deposition over the last 450 kyr. The striking regional coherence of these records suggests that dissolution in the deep sea and sediment pore waters does not obscure the surface productivity signal, and therefore these opal time series can be used in combination with other surface water tracers to make inferences about the chemistry and circulation of the Southern Ocean under different global climate conditions. Three broad depositional patterns can be distinguished. Northernmost records (39°-42°S latitude) are characterized by enhanced opal burial during glacial periods and strong 41 kyr periodicity. Records from cores just north of the present Antarctic Polar Front (46°-49°S) show even larger increases in opal burial rate during glacial intervals, but have variance concentrated in the 100 and 23 kyr bands. Southernmost records (51°-55°S) are completely out of phase with those to the north, with greatly reduced opal burial rates during glacial periods. Taken as a whole, the opal records show no evidence for the increased total Antarctic productivity predicted by recent geochemical models of atmospheric CO2 variability. The areal expansion of Southern Ocean sea ice over the present zone of high siliceous productivity provides one plausible explanation for the glacial-interglacial opal patterns. The excess silica not taken up in this zone during glacial periods would contribute to greater nutrient availability and thus higher productivity in the subantarctic region. However, local circulation changes may act to modify this basic signal, possibly accounting for the observed differences in the opal variance spectra.

Stable isotopes, radionuclides, and calculated sea surface temperature of two sediment cores in the Sicily Channel

The Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) occurred in the Aegean Sea from 1988 to 1995 and is the most significant intermediate-to-deep Mediterranean overturning perturbation reported by instrumental records. The EMT was likely caused by accumulation of high salinity waters in the Levantine and enhanced heat loss in the Aegean Sea, coupled with surface water freshening in the Sicily Channel. It is still unknown whether similar transients occurred in the past and, if so, what their forcing processes were. In this study, sediments from the Sicily Channel document surface water freshening (SCFR) at 1910±12, 1812±18, 1725±25 and 1580±30 CE. A regional ocean hindcast links SCFR to enhanced deep-water production and in turn to strengthened Mediterranean thermohaline circulation. Independent evidence collected in the Aegean Sea supports this reconstruction, showing that enhanced bottom water ventilation in the Eastern Mediterranean was associated with each SCFR event. Comparison between the records and multi-decadal atmospheric circulation patterns and climatic external forcings indicates that Mediterranean circulation destabilisation occurs during positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and negative Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) phases, reduced solar activity and strong tropical volcanic eruptions. They may have recurrently produced favourable deep-water formation conditions, both increasing salinity and reducing temperature on multi-decadal time scales.

(Table 1) Age markers and errors for the last 1215 ka in IODP Exp302

Despite its importance in the global climate system, age-calibrated marine geologic records reflecting the evolution of glacial cycles through the Pleistocene are largely absent from the central Arctic Ocean. This is especially true for sediments older than 200 ka. Three sites cored during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's Expedition 302, the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX), provide a 27 m continuous sedimentary section from the Lomonosov Ridge in the central Arctic Ocean. Two key biostratigraphic datums and constraints from the magnetic inclination data are used to anchor the chronology of these sediments back to the base of the Cobb Mountain subchron (1215 ka). Beyond 1215 ka, two best fitting geomagnetic models are used to investigate the nature of cyclostratigraphic change. Within this chronology we show that bulk and mineral magnetic properties of the sediments vary on predicted Milankovitch frequencies. These cyclic variations record ''glacial'' and ''interglacial'' modes of sediment deposition on the Lomonosov Ridge as evident in studies of ice-rafted debris and stable isotopic and faunal assemblages for the last two glacial cycles and were used to tune the age model. Potential errors, which largely arise from uncertainties in the nature of downhole paleomagnetic variability, and the choice of a tuning target are handled by defining an error envelope that is based on the best fitting cyclostratigraphic and geomagnetic solutions.