(Table 2) Age determination of sediment cores from the Tasman Plateau

Various biomarkers (n-alkanes, n-alcohols, and sterols) have been studied in a piston core TSP-2PC taken from the Southern Ocean to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental changes in the subantarctic region for the last two deglaciations. Mass accumulation rates of terrestrial (higher molecular weight n-alkanes and n-alcohols) and marine (dinosterol and brassicasterol) biomarkers increased significantly at the last two glacials and stayed low during interglacial peaks (early Holocene and the Eemian). These records indicate that the enhanced atmospheric transport of continental materials and the increased marine biological productivity were synchronously linked in the Southern Ocean at the last two glacials. This suggests that increased glacial dust inputs have relieved iron limitation in the subantarctic Southern Ocean. These two processes, however, were not linked at the cooling phase from the Eemian to marine isotope stage (MIS) 5d. During this period, paleoproductivity may have been influenced by the latitudinal migration of the high-production zone associated with the Antarctic Polar Front.

Organic carbon and nitrogen, sediment composition, and clay mineralogy of Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 603, western Atlantic Ocean

Sediment and interstitial water samples recovered during DSDP Leg 93 at Site 603 (lower continental rise off Cape Hatteras) were analyzed for a series of geochemical facies indicators to elucidate the nature and origin of the sedimentary material. Special emphasis was given to middle Cretaceous organic-matter-rich turbidite sequences of Aptian to Turanian age. Organic carbon content ranges from nil in pelagic claystone samples to 4.2% (total rock) in middle Cretaceous carbonaceous mudstones of turbiditic origin. The organic matter is of marine algal origin with significant contributions of terrigenous matter via turbidites. Maturation indices (vitrinite reflectance) reveal that the terrestrial humic material is reworked. Maturity of autochthonous material (i.e., primary vitrinite) falls in the range of 0.3 to 0.6% Carbohydrate, hydrocarbon, and microscopic investigations reveal moderate to high microbial degradation. Unlike deep-basin black shales of the South and North Atlantic, organic-carbon-rich members of the Hatteras Formation lack trace metal enrichment. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in interstitial water samples ranges from 34.4 ppm in a sandstone sample to 126.2 ppm in an organic-matter-rich carbonaceous claystone sample. One to two percent of DOC is carbohydratecarbon.

Decadal-to-centennial scale variations during the Holocene reconstructed from sediment core D13902

Sea surface temperature (SST), marine productivity, and fluvial input have been reconstructed for the last 11.5 calendar (cal) ka B.P. using a high-resolution study of C37 alkenones, coccolithophores, iron content, and higher plant n-alkanes and n-alkan-1-ols in sedimentary sequences from the inner shelf off the Tagus River Estuary in the Portuguese Margin. The SST record is marked by a continuous decrease from 19C, at 10.5 and 7 ka, to 15C at present. This trend is interrupted by a fall from 18C during the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods to 16C in the Little Ice Age. River input was very low in the early Holocene but increased in the last 3 cal ka B.P. in association with an intensification of agriculture and deforestation and possibly the onset of the North Atlantic Oscillation/Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation modes of variability. River influence must have reinforced the marine cooling trend relative to the lower amplitude in similar latitude sites of the eastern Atlantic. The total concentration of alkenones reflects river-induced productivity, being low in the early Holocene but increasing as river input became more important. Rapid cooling, of 1-2C occurring in 250 years, is observed at 11.1, 10.6, 8.2, 6.9, and 5.4 cal ka B.P. The estimated age of these events matches the ages of equivalent episodes common in the NE Atlantic- Mediterranean region. This synchronicity reveals a common widespread climate feature, which considering the twentieth century analog between colder SSTs and negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), is likely to reflect periods of strong negative NAO.

Geochemistry and geomicrobiology profiles of ferruginous sediment, Lake Towuti, Indonesia

Lake Towuti is a tectonic basin, surrounded by ultramafic rocks. Lateritic soils form through weathering and deliver abundant iron (oxy)hydroxides but very little sulfate to the lake and its sediment. To characterize the sediment biogeochemistry, we collected cores at three sites with increasing water depth and decreasing bottom water oxygen concentrations. Microbial cell densities were highest at the shallow site - a feature we attribute to the availability of labile organic matter and the higher abundance of electron acceptors due to oxic bottom water conditions. At the two other sites, OM degradation and reduction processes below the oxycline led to partial electron acceptor depletion. Genetic information preserved in the sediment as extracellular DNA provides information on aerobic and anaerobic heterotrophs related to Actinobacteria, Nitrospirae, Chloroflexi and Thermoplasmatales. These taxa apparently played a significant role in the degradation of sinking organic matter. However, extracellular DNA concentrations rapidly decrease with core depth. Despite very low sulfate concentrations, sulfate-reducing bacteria were present and viable in sediments at all three sites, as confirmed by measurement of potential sulfate reduction rates. Microbial community fingerprinting supported the presence of taxa related to Deltaproteobacteria and Firmicutes with demonstrated capacity for iron and sulfate reduction. Concomitantly, sequences of Ruminococcaceae, Clostridiales and Methanomicrobiales indicated potential for fermentative hydrogen and methane production. Such first insights into ferruginous sediments show that microbial populations perform successive metabolisms related to sulfur, iron and methane. In theory, iron reduction could reoxidize reduced sulfur compounds and desorb OM from iron minerals to allow remineralization to methane. Overall, we found that biogeochemical processes in the sediments can be linked to redox differences in the bottom waters of the three sites, like oxidant concentrations and the supply of labile OM. At the scale of the lacustrine record, our geomicrobiological study should provide a means to link the extant subsurface biosphere to past environments.

(Table 2) Age determination of sediment cores from the Gulf of Cadiz

We present micropalaeontological and grain-size records for a set of sediment cores from the Gulf of Cadiz (southwest Spain) that reflect changes in the position and strength of the Mediterranean Outflow (MO) current. The cores sample a sediment drift (the Gil Eanes Drift) that is positioned lower on the slope in the Gulf of Cadiz than the position of the main current today. The data indicate that the drift is of glacial age and that the glacial MO current was positioned lower on the slope than today but also that it was active over a considerably reduced area of the slope. We argue that this observation is consistent with physical constraints on the Gibraltar Exchange and on the likely settling and spreading behavior of the MO plume along the Iberian Margin under glacial environmental and sea level conditions. The deeper settling of the MO is likely to have influenced the formation of glacial North Atlantic Intermediate Water and also may have exerted indirect influence on the formation of glacial North Atlantic Deep Water.

Organic geochemical parameters (biomarker) in sedimentary sequences and sediment traps

For the reconstruction of sea-ice variability, a biomarker approach which is based on (1) the determination of sea-ice diatom-specific highly-branched isoprenoid (IP25) and (2) the coupling of phytoplankton biomarkers and IP25 has been used. For the first time, such a data set was obtained from an array of two sediment traps deployed at the southern Lomonosov Ridge in the central Arctic Ocean at water depth of 150 m and 1550 m and recording the seasonal variability of sea ice cover in 1995/1996. These data indicate a predominantly permanent sea ice cover at the trap location between November 1995 and June 1996, an ice-edge situation with increased phytoplankton productivity and sea-ice algae input in July/August 1996, and the start of new-ice formation in late September. The record of modern sea-ice variability is then used to better interpret data from sediment core PS2458-4 recovered at the Laptev Sea continental slope close to the interception with Lomonosov Ridge and recording the post-glacial to Holocene change in sea-ice cover. Based on IP25 and phytoplankton biomarker data from Core PS2458-4, minimum sea-ice cover was reconstructed for the Bølling/Allerød warm interval between about 14.5 and 13 calendar kyr BP, followed by a rapid and distinct increase in sea-ice cover at about 12.8 calendar kyr BP. This sea-ice event was directly preceded by a dramatic freshwater event and a collapse of phytoplankton productivity, having started about 100 years earlier. These data are the first direct evidence that enhanced freshwater flux caused enhanced sea-ice formation in the Arctic at the beginning of the Younger Dryas. In combination with a contemporaneous, abrupt and very prominent freshwater/meltwater pulse in the Yermak Plateau/Fram Strait area these data may furthermore support the hypothesis that strongly enhanced freshwater (and ice) export from the Arctic into the North Atlantic could have played an important trigger role for the onset of the Younger Dryas cold reversal. During the Early Holocene, sea-ice cover steadily increased again (ice-edge situation), reaching modern sea-ice conditions (more or less permanent sea-ice cover) probably at about 7-8 calendar kyr BP.

(Table 2) Age determination of sediment cores from the Portuguese Margin

We demonstrate that changes in the behavior of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) prior to and through the last deglaciation played an important role in promoting Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC). Estimation of past MOW salt and heat fluxes indicates that they gradually increased through the last deglaciation. Between 17.5 and 14.6 thousand years ago (ka B.P., where B.P. references year 1950), net evaporation from the Mediterranean exported sufficient fresh water from the North Atlantic catchment to cause an average salinity increase of 0.5 psu throughout the upper 2000 m of the entire North Atlantic to the north of 25°N. Combined with rapid intensification and shoaling of the MOW plume, which we identify around 15-14.5 ka B.P., this deglacial MOW-related salt accumulation preconditioned the North Atlantic for abrupt resumption of the MOC at 14.6 ka B.P.

(Table 2) Age determination of sediment cores MD95-2002 and MD03-2692

We have compiled results obtained from four high sedimentation rate hemipelagic sequences from the Celtic sector of the NW European margin (NE Atlantic) to investigate the paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic evolution of the area over the last few climatic cycles. We focus on periods characteristic of deglacial transitions. We adopt a multiproxy sedimentological, geochemical, and micropaleontological approach, applying a sampling resolution down to ten microns for specific intervals. The investigation demonstrates the relationships between the Bay of Biscay hydrography and the glacial/deglacial history of both the proximal British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) and the western European continent. We identify recurrent phases of laminae deposition concurrent with major BIIS deglacial episodes in all the studied cores. Evidence for abrupt freshwater discharges into the open ocean highlights the influence of such events at a regional scale. We discuss their impact at a global scale considering the present and past key location of the Bay of Biscay versus the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

n-fatty acids of shale partings in the Franciscan bedded cherts

Normal saturated fatty acid (n-fatty acid) in marine sediments from coastal and pelagic environments were analyzed. The coastal sediments contain both short-chained n-fatty acids with carbon numbers from 12 to 18 and long-chained acids from 22 to 32, whereas the pelagic sediments contain predominantly short-chained acids. The relative abundance of short-chained to long-chained n-fatty acids, expressed by the molar ratio C16/C26, can be an indicator to assess the depositional environment of sedimentary rocks. The ratio of long-chained n-fatty acids (C22-C32) to the total n-fatty acids also has the potential to discriminate sedimentary environments. The indicators based on the n-fatty acids were applied to the Franciscan bedded cherts. The result shows that the bedded cherts had deposited in continuous environments from the pelagic to the coastal. This is in harmony with the same inference based on major, trace and rare earth elements and normal paraffins.

Determination of sulfite and manganese in sediments from the K/T boundary

The solid-state-physics technique of electron spin resonance (ESR) has been employed in an exploratory study of marine limestones and impact-related deposits from Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) boundary sites including Spain (Sopelana and Caravaca), New Jersey (Bass River), the U.S. Atlantic continental margin (Blake Nose, ODP Leg 171B/1049/A), and several locations in Belize and southern Mexico within -600 km of the Chicxulub crater. The ESR spectra of SO3(1-) (a radiation-induced point defect involving a sulfite ion substitutional for CO3(2-) which has trapped a positive charge) and Mn(2+) in calcite were singled out for analysis because they are unambiguously interpretable and relatively easy to record. ESR signal strengths of calcite-related SO3(1-) and Mn(2+) have been studied as functions of stratigraphic position in whole-rock samples across the KT boundary at Sopelana, Caravaca, and Blake Nose. At all three of these sites, anomalies in SO3(1-) and/or Mn(2+) intensities are noted at the KT boundary relative to the corresponding background levels in the rocks above and below. At Caravaca, the SO3(1-) background itself is found to be lower by a factor of 2.7 in the first 30,000 years of the Tertiary relative to its steady-state value in the last 15,000 years of the Cretaceous, indicating either an abrupt and quasi-permanent change in ocean chemistry (or temperature) or extinction of the marine biota primarily responsible for fixing sulfite in the late Cretaceous limestones. An exponential decrease in the Mn(2+) concentration per unit mass calcite, [Mn(2+)], as the KT boundary at Caravaca is approached from below (1/e characteristic length =1.4 cm) is interpreted as a result of post-impact leaching of the seafloor. Absolute ESR quantitative analyses of proximal impact deposits from Belize and southern Mexico group naturally into three distinct fields in a twodimensional [SO3(1-)]-versus-[Mn(2+)] scatter plot. These fields contain (I) limestone ejecta clasts, (II) accretionary lapilli, and (III) a variety of SO3(1-) -depleted/Mn(2+) enriched impact deposits. Data for the investigated non-impact-related Cretaceous and Tertiary marine limestones (Spain and Blake Nose) fall outside of these three fields. With reference to thes enon-impact deposits, fields I, II, and III can be respectively characterized as Mn(2+) -depleted, SO3(1-) -enhanced, and SO3(1-) -depleted. It is proposed that (1) field I represents calcites from the Yucatin Platform, and that the Mn(2+) -depleted signature can be used as an indicator of primary Chicxulub ejecta in deep marine environments and (2) field II represents calcites that include a component formed in the vapor plume, either from condensation in the presence of CO2/SO3(1-) -rich vapors, or reactions between CaO and CO2/SO3 rich vapors, and that this SO3(1-) -enhanced signature can be used as an indicator of impact vapor plume deposits. Given these two propositions, the ESR data for the Blake Nose deposits are ascribed to the presence of basal coarse calcitic Chicxulub ejecta clasts, while the finer components that are increasingly represented toward the top are interpreted to contain high- SO3(1-) calcite from the vapor plume. The apparently-undisturbed Bass River deposit may contain even higher concentrations of vapor-plume calcite. None of the three components included in field III appear to be represented at distal, deep marine KT-boundary sites; this field may include several types of impact-related deposits of diverse origins and diagenetic histories.