(Table 1) Different age analysis from sediment cores XP98-PC-4 and XP98-PC-2

Sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Sea of Okhotsk were reconstructed based on alkenone unsaturation indices in two sediment cores. Alkenone-SSTs were found to range from 3 to 9 °C over the last 85 kyr with higher SST values in warm periods: Holocene and the oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 5a. In the last glacial periods (OIS 4 and 3), average alkenone SST was estimated to be 4 °C, which was 4 °C lower than the Holocene on average. However, alkenone SSTs around the last glacial maximum (LGM) are as high as those of the Holocene. The variation patterns of U37K' in the Okhotsk Sea were found to be similar to those reported in the Sea of Japan [Org. Chem. 32 (2001) 57] over the last 30 kyr, although the SSTs were lower in the Sea of Okhotsk. The higher U37K' values around the LGM may be a rather common phenomenon in semi-closed marginal seas such as the Japan Sea and the Okhotsk Sea, which are both adjacent to the northwestern Pacific. Such an anomaly in the LGM may have been caused by either a seasonal shift of coccolith blooming or a contribution from a different strain or species that produces alkenones

Stable isotopes, Mg/Ca-ratios, and biogenic opal of five sediment cores from the subarctic northwest Pacific

Based on models and proxy data it has been proposed that salinity-driven stratification weakened in the subarctic North Pacific during the last deglaciation, which potentially contributed to the deglacial rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. We present high-resolution subsurface temperature (TMg/Ca) and subsurface salinity-approximating (d18Oivc-sw) records across the last 20,000 years from the subarctic North Pacific and its marginal seas, derived from combined stable oxygen isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios of the planktonic foraminiferal species Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (sin.). Our results indicate regionally differing changes of subsurface conditions. During the Heinrich Stadial 1 and the Younger Dryas cold phases our sites were subject to reduced thermal stratification, brine rejection due to sea-ice formation, and increased advection of low-salinity water from the Alaskan Stream. In contrast, the Bølling-Allerød warm phase was characterized by strengthened thermal stratification, stronger sea-ice melting, and influence of surface waters that were less diluted by the Alaskan Stream. From direct comparison with alkenone-based sea surface temperature estimates (SSTUk'37), we suggest deglacial thermocline changes that were closely related to changes in seasonal contrasts and stratification of the mixed layer. The modern upper-ocean conditions seem to have developed only since the early Holocene.