Younger Dryas-Holocene sedimentary plant-wax hydrogen isotopes from the southern European Alps

We present a Younger Dryas-Holocene record of the hydrogen isotopic composition of sedimentary plant waxes (dDwax) from the southern European Alps (Lake Ghirla, N-Italy) to investigate its sensitivity to climatic forcing variations in this mid-latitude region (45°N). A modern altitudinal transect of dD values of river water and leaf waxes in the Lake Ghirla catchment is used to test present-day climate sensitivity of dDwax. While we find that altitudinal effects on dDwax are minor at our study site, temperature, precipitation amount, and evapotranspiration all appear to influence dDwax to varying extents. In the lake-sediment record, dDwax values vary between -134 and -180 per mil over the past 13 kyr. The long-term Holocene pattern of dDwax parallels the trend of decreasing temperature and is thus likely forced by the decline of northern hemisphere summer insolation. Shorter-term fluctuations, in contrast, may reflect both temperature and moisture-source changes. During the cool Younger Dryas and Little Ice Age (LIA) periods we observe unexpectedly high dDwax values relative to those before and after. We suggest that a change towards a more D-enriched moisture source is required during these intervals. In fact, a shift from northern N-Atlantic to southern N-Atlantic/western Mediterranean Sea sources would be consistent with a southward migration of the Westerlies with climate cooling. Prominent dDwax fluctuations in the early and middle Holocene are negative and potentially associated with temperature declines. In the late Holocene (<4 kyr BP), excursions are partly positive (as for the LIA) suggesting a stronger influence of moisture-source changes on dDwax variation. In addition to isotopic fractionations of the hydrological cycle, changes in vegetation composition, in the length of the growing season, and in snowfall amount provide additional potential sources of variability, although we cannot yet quantitatively assess these in the paleo-record. We conclude that while our dDwax record from the Alps does contain climatic information, it is a complicated record that would require additional constraints to be robustly interpreted. This also has important implications for other water-isotope-based proxy records of precipitation and hydro-climate from this region, such as cave speleothems.

(Table T1) Lithologic and ichnologic description of ODP Hole 174-1073A

When examined in their sedimentologic and stratigraphic context, ichnofabrics and component ichnofossils can help decipher paleoceanography and sea-level histories from marine deposits (Savrda, 1995, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3515095). Thus far, applications of ichnology in paleoceanographic investigations have been restricted to slowly deposited, predominantly biogenic sediments and/or strata deposited in oxygen-deficient, tectonically active basins. Moreover, ichnologic applications in sequence stratigraphic studies largely have been restricted to strata deposited in relatively shallow-water shelf or foreland basin settings. The limits of previous studies provided impetus for detailed postcruise examination of Quaternary deposits recovered at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1073 on the New Jersey margin. These deposits provide the opportunity to assess the sedimentary and ichnofabric record of glacio-eustatic cycles in a passive continental slope setting characterized by relatively rapid accumulation of siliciclastic sediments in an area not far removed from the Laurentide ice margin. The primary purpose of this data report is to present basic sedimentologic and ichnologic observations made at the decimeter scale throughout the Quaternary sequence from Site 1073. Data analysis and interpretation in the context of climate and sea-level histories, as inferred from oxygen isotopic, palynologic, and seismic studies, are ongoing and will be presented in subsequent papers prepared for open literature (e.g., Savrda et al., in press).

Bulk sediment parameters and coarse-fraction analysis of ODP Leg 178 holes

The area west of the Antarctic Peninsula is a key region for studying and understanding the history of glaciation in the southern high latitudes during the Neogene with respect to variations of the western Antarctic continental ice sheet, variable sea-ice cover, induced eustatic sea level change, as well as consequences for the global climatic system (Barker, Camerlenghi, Acton, et al., 1999). Sites 1095, 1096, and 1101 were drilled on sediment drifts forming the continental rise to examine the nature and composition of sediments deposited under the influence of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet, which has repeatedly advanced to the shelf edge and subsequently released glacially eroded material on the continental shelf and slope (Barker et al., 1999). Mass gravity processes on the slope are responsible for downslope sediment transport by turbidity currents within a channel system between the drifts. Furthermore, bottom currents redistribute the sediments, which leads to final build up of drift bodies (Rebesco et al., 1998). The high-resolution sedimentary sequences on the continental rise can be used to document the variability of continental glaciation and, therefore, allow us to assess the main factors that control the sediment transport and the depositional processes during glaciation periods and their relationship to glacio-eustatic sea level changes. Site 1095 lies in 3840 m of water in a distal position on the northwestern lower flank of Drift 7, whereas Site 1096 lies in 3152 m of water in a more proximal position within Drift 7. Site 1101 is located at 3509 m water depth on the northwestern flank of Drift 4. All three sites have high sedimentation rates. The oldest sediments were recovered at Site 1095 (late Miocene; 9.7 Ma), whereas sediments of Pliocene age were recovered at Site 1096 (4.7 Ma) and at Site 1101 (3.5 Ma). The purpose of this work is to provide a data set of bulk sediment parameters such as CaCO3, total organic carbon (TOC), and coarse-fraction mass percentage (>63 µm) measured on the sediments collected from the continental rise of the western Antarctic Peninsula (Holes 1095A, 1095B, 1096A, 1096B, 1096C, and 1101A). This information can be used to understand the complex depositional processes and their implication for variations in the climatic system of the western Pacific Antarctic margin since 9.7 Ma (late Miocene). Coarse-fraction particles (125-500 µm) from the late Pliocene and Pleistocene (4.0 Ma to recent) sediments recovered from Hole 1095A were microscopically analyzed to gather more detailed information about their variability and composition through time. These data can yield information about changes in potential source regions of the glacially eroded material that has been transported during repeated periods of ice-sheet movements on the shelf.