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.

Organic geochemistry of sediment cores from the Arbian Sea

Two deep-sea sediment cores from the northeastern and the southeastern Arabian Sea were studied in order to reconstruct the palaeoenvironments of the past glacial cycles. Core 136KL was recovered from the high-productivity area off Pakistan within the modern oxygen-minimum zone (OMZ). By contrast, modern primary productivity at the site of MD900963 close to Maldives is moderate and bottom waters are today well oxygenated. For both cores, we reconstructed the changes in palaeoproductivity using a set of biomarkers (alkenones, dinosterol and brassicasterol); the main result is that primary productivity is enhanced during glacial stages and lowered during interstadials. The proxies associated with productivity show a 23 kyr cyclicity corresponding to the precession-related insolation cycle. Palaeoredox conditions were studied in both cores using a new organic geochemical parameter (C35/C31-n-alkane ratio) developed by analysing surface sediments from a transect across the OMZ off Pakistan. The value of this ratio in core 136KL shows many variations during the last 65 kyr, indicating that the OMZ was not stable during this time: it disappeared completely during Heinrich- and the Younger Dryas events, pointing to a connection between global oceanic circulation and the stability of the OMZ. The C35/C31 ratio determined in sediments of core MD900963 shows that bottom waters remained rather well oxygenated over the last 330 kyr, which is confirmed by comparison with authigenic metal concentrations in the same sediments. A zonally averaged, circulation-biogeochemical ocean model was used to explore how the intermediate Indian Ocean responds to a freshwater flux anomaly at the surface of the North Atlantic. As suggested by the geochemical time series, both the abundance of Southern Ocean Water and the oxygen concentration are significantly increased in response to this freshwater perturbation.