Late Miocene and Pliocene dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs and terrestrial palynomorphs from ODP Hole 642B, Vøring Plateau, Norwegian Sea

The globally warm climate of the early Pliocene gradually cooled from 4 million years ago, synchronous with decreasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. In contrast, palaeoceanographic records indicate that the Nordic Seas cooled during the earliest Pliocene, before global cooling. However, a lack of knowledge regarding the precise timing of Nordic Seas cooling has limited our understanding of the governing mechanisms. Here, using marine palynology, we show that cooling in the Nordic Seas was coincident with the first trans-Arctic migration of cool-water Pacific mollusks around 4.5 million years ago, and followed by the development of a modern-like Nordic Seas surface circulation. Nordic Seas cooling precedes global cooling by 500,000 years; as such, we propose that reconfiguration of the Bering Strait and Central American Seaway triggered the development of a modern circulation in the Nordic Seas, which is essential for North Atlantic Deep Water formation and a precursor for more widespread Greenland glaciation in the late Pliocene.

Lithogenic and biogenic daily and annual particle fluxes on the Lomonosov Ridge of trap LOMO-2

Investigations of lithogenic and biogenic particle fluxes using long-term sediment traps are still very rare in the northern high latitudes and restricted to the arctic marginal seas and sub-arctic regions. Here, for the first time, data on the variability of fluxes of lithogenic matter, carbonate, opal, and organic carbon as well as biomarker composition from the central Arctic Ocean are presented for a one-year period. The study has been carried out on material obtained from a long-term mooring system equipped with two multi-sampling-traps (150 and 1550 m water depth) and deployed on the southern Lomonosov Ridge close to the Laptev Sea continental margin from September 1995 to August 1996. In addition, data from surface-sediments were included in the study to get more information about the flux and sedimentation of organic carbon in this area. Annual fluxes of lithogenic matter, carbonate, opal, and particulate organic carbon are 3.9 g/m**2/y, 0.8 g/m**2/y, 2.6 g/m**2/y, 1.5 g/m**2/y, respectively, at the shallow trap and 11.3 g/m**2/y, 0.5 g/m**2/y, 2.9 g/m**2/y, 1.05 g/m**2/y, respectively, at the deep trap. Both the shallow as well as the deep trap show significant differences in vertical flux values over the year. Higher values were found from mid-July to end of October (total flux of 75-130 mg/m**2/d in the shallow trap and 40-225 mg/m**2/d in the deep trap, respectively). During all other months, fluxes were fairly low in both traps (most total flux values <10 mg/m**2/d1). The interval of increased fluxes can be separated into (1) a mid-July/August maximum caused by increased primary production as documented in high abundances of marine biomarkers and diatoms, and (2) a September/October (absolute) maximum caused by increased influence of Lena river discharge indicated by maximum lithogenic flux and high portions of terrigenous/fluvial biomarkers in both traps. Here, total fluxes in the deep trap were significantly higher than in the shallow trap, suggesting a lateral sediment flux at greater depth. The lithogenic flux data also support the importance of sediment input from the Laptev Sea for the sediment accumulation on the Lomonosov Ridge on geological time scales, as indicated in sedimentary records from this region.