14C concentrations of algal and archaeal lipids and their associated sea surface temperature proxies in the Black Sea

Understanding the preservation and deposition history of organic molecules is crucial for the understanding of paleoenvironmental information contained in their abundance ratios such as Uk'37 and TEX86 used as proxies for sea surface temperature (SST). Based on their relatively high refractivity, alkenones and glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) can survive postdepositional processes like lateral transport, potentially causing inferred SSTs to be misleading. Likewise, selective preservation of alkenones and GDGTs may cause biases of the SST proxies themselves and can lead to decoupling of both proxy records. Here we report compound-specific radiocarbon data of marine biomarkers including alkenones, GDGTs, and low molecular weight (LMW) n-fatty acids from Black Sea sediments deposited under different redox regimes to evaluate the potentially differential preservation of both biomarker classes and its effect on the SST indices Uk'37 and TEX86 . The decadal D14C values of alkenones, GDGTs, and LMW n-fatty acids indicate similar preservation under oxic, suboxic, and anoxic redox regimes and no contribution of pre-aged compounds, e.g., by lateral supply. Moreover, similar 14C concentrations of crenarchaeol, alkenones, and LMW n-fatty acids imply that the thaumarchaeotal GDGTs preserved in these sediments are produced in the euphotic zone rather than in subsurface/thermocline waters. However, we observe biomarker-based SSTs that strongly deviate (deltaSST up to 8.4 °C) from in situ measured mean annual SSTs in the Black Sea. This is not due to redox-dependent differential biomarker preservation as implied by their D14C values and spatial SST pattern. Since contributions from different sources can largely be excluded, the deviation of the Uk'37 and TEX86 proxy-derived SSTs from in situ SSTs requires further study of phylogenetic and other yet unknown environmental controls on alkenone and GDGT lipid distributions in the Black Sea.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Sediment, water and biomass characteristics along gradients in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

In contrast to numerous studies on the biomass of marine microphytobenthos from temperate coastal ecosystems, little is known from polar regions. Therefore, microphytobenthos biomass was measured at several coastal sites in Arctic Kongsfjorden (Spitsbergen) during the polar summer (June-August 2006). On sandy sediments, chla varied between 8 and 200 mg/m**2 and was related to water depth, current/wave exposure and geographical location. Biomass was rather independent of abiotic parameters such as sediment properties, salinity, temperature or light availability. At three stations, sediments at water depths of 3-4, 10, 15, 20 and 30 m were investigated to evaluate the effect of light availability on microalgae. Significant differences in distribution patterns of biomass in relation to deeper waters >10 m were found. The productive periods were not as distinct as phytoplankton blooms. Only at 3-4 m water depth at all three stations were two- to threefold increases of biomass measured during the investigation period. Hydrodynamic conditions seemed to be the driving force for differences in sediment colonisation by benthic microalgae. In spite of the extreme Arctic environmental conditions for algal growth, microphytobenthos biomass was comparable to marine temperate waters.

(Table 1) Major element composition of core 5022-2CP, Laguna Potrok Aike, southern Patagonia

Total organic carbon, total inorganic carbon, biogenic silica content and total organic carbon/total nitrogen ratios of the Laguna Potrok Aike lacustrine sediment record are used to reconstruct the environmental history of south-east Patagonia during the past 51 ka in high resolution. High lake level conditions are assumed to have prevailed during the Last Glacial, as sediments are carbonate-free. Increased runoff linked to permafrost and reduced evaporation due to colder temperatures and reduced influence of Southern Hemispheric Westerlies (SHW) may have caused these high lake levels with lake productivity being low and organic matter mainly of algal or cyanobacterial origin. Aquatic moss growth and diatom blooms occurred synchronously with southern hemispheric glacial warming events such as the Antarctic A-events, the postglacial warming following the LGM and the Younger Dryas chronozone. During these times, a combination of warmer climatic conditions with related thawing permafrost could have increased the allochthonous input of nutrients and in combination with warmer surface waters increased aquatic moss growth and diatom production. The SHW were not observed to affect southern Patagonia during the Last Glacial. The Holocene presents a completely different lacustrine system because (a) permafrost no longer inhibits infiltration nor emits meltwater pulses and (b) the positioning of the SHW over the investigated area gives rise to strong and dry winds. Under these conditions total organic carbon, total organic carbon/total nitrogen ratios and biogenic silica cease to be first order productivity indicators. On the one hand, the biogenic silica is influenced by dissolution of diatoms due to higher salinity and pH of the lake water under evaporative stress characterizing low lake levels. On the other hand, total organic carbon and total organic carbon/total nitrogen profiles are influenced by reworked macrophytes from freshly exposed lake level terraces during lowstands. Total inorganic carbon remains the most reliable proxy for climatic variations during the Holocene as high precipitation of carbonates can be linked to low lake levels and high autochthonous production. The onset of inorganic carbon precipitation has been associated with the southward shift of the SHW over the latitudes of Laguna Potrok Aike. The refined age-depth model of this record suggests that this shift occurred around 9.4 cal. ka BP.

Oceanography during TYDEMAN cruise DCM (DeepChlorMax) to the Equatorial Atlantic

The cruise with RV Tydeman was devoted to study permanently stratified plankton systems in the (sub)tropical ocean, which are characterised by a deep chlorophyll peak between 80 and 150 m. To minimise lateral effects by horizontal transport of nutrients and organic matter from river outflow and upwelling regions, stations were selected in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean between the continents of America and Africa. (5 - 35° N and 50 - 15° W). Here the vertical distributions of light and nutrients control the abundance and growth of autotrophic algae in the thermically stratified water column. This phytoplankton is numerically dominated by the prokaryotic picoplankters Synechococcus spp. and Prochlorococcus spp., which are smaller than 2 ?m. The productivity of the 100 to 150 m deep euphotic zone can be high, because a high heterotrophic/autotrophic biomass ratio induces a rapid regeneration of nutrients and inorganic carbon. Primary grazers are mainly micro-organisms such as heterotrophic nannoflagellates and ciliates, which feed on the small algae and on bacteria. Heterotrophic bacteria can outnumber the autotrophic algae, because their number is related to the substrate pools of dissolved and particulate dead organic matter. These DOC and detritus pools reach equilibrium at a concentration, where the rate of their production (proportional to algal biomass) equals their mineralisation and sinking rate (proportional to the concentration and weight of POC and detritus). At a relatively low value of the weight-specific loss rates, the equilibrium concentration of these carbon pools and their load of bacteria can be high. The bacterial productivity is proportional to the mineralisation rate, which in a steady state can never be higher than the rate of primary production. Hence the ratio in turnover rate of bacteria and autotrophs tends to be reciprocally proportional to their biomass ratio.

Mid-Pliocene palynomorph record of the North Atlantic

The mid-Pliocene was an episode of prolonged global warmth and strong North Atlantic thermohaline circulation, interrupted briefly at circa 3.30 Ma by a global cooling event corresponding to marine isotope stage (MIS) M2. Paleoceanographic changes in the eastern North Atlantic have been reconstructed between circa 3.35 and 3.24 Ma at Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 610 and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site 1308. Mg/Ca ratios and d18O from Globigerina bulloides are used to reconstruct the temperature and relative salinity of surface waters, and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages are used to assess variability in the North Atlantic Current (NAC). Our sea surface temperature data indicate warm waters at both sites before and after MIS M2 but a cooling of ~2-3°C during MIS M2. A dinoflagellate cyst assemblage overturn marked by a decline in Operculodinium centrocarpum reflects a southward shift or slowdown of the NAC between circa 3.330 and 3.283 Ma, reducing northward heat transport 23-35 ka before the global ice volume maximum of MIS M2. This will have established conditions that ultimately allowed the Greenland ice sheet to expand, leading to the global cooling event at MIS M2. Comparison with an ice-rafted debris record excludes fresh water input via icebergs in the northeast Atlantic as a cause of NAC decline. The mechanism causing the temporary disruption of the NAC may be related to a brief reopening of the Panamanian Gateway at about this time.

Isotope analysis, age calculation and calcite concentration from IODP Hole 310-M0005D

We present uranium-thoriumchronology for a 102 mcore through a Pleistocene reef at Tahiti (French Polynesia) sampled during IODP Expedition 310 "Tahiti Sea Level". We employ total and partial dissolution procedures on the older coral samples to investigate the diagenetic overprint of the uranium-thoriumsystem. Although alteration of the U-Th system cannot be robustly corrected, diagenetic trends in the U-Th data, combined with sea level and subsidence constraints for the growth of the corals enables the age of critical samples to be constrained to marine isotope stage 9. We use the ages of the corals, together with d18O based sea-level histories, to provide maximum constraints on possible paleo water-depths. These depth constraints are then compared to independent depth estimates based on algal and foraminiferal assemblages, microbioerosion patterns, and sedimentary facies, confirming the accuracy of these paleo water-depth estimates. We also use the fact that corals could not have grown above sea level to place amaximumconstraint on the subsidence rate of Tahiti to be 0.39 m ka**-1,with the most likely rate being close to the existing minimum estimate of 0.25m ka**-1.