Hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in ground lce of Bykovsky Peninsula, North Siberia

In wide areas of Northern Siberia, glaciers have been absent since the Late Pleistocene. Therefore, ground ice and especially ice wedges are used as archives for paleoclimatic studies. In the present study, carried out on the Bykovsky Peninsula, eastern Lena Delta, we were able to distinguish ice wedges of different genetic units by means of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes. The results obtained by this study on the Ice Complex, a peculiar periglacial phenomenon, allowed the reconstruction of the climate history with a subdivision of a period of very cold winters (60-55 ka), followed by a long stable period of cold winter temperatures (50-24 ka), Between 20 ka and I I ka, climate warming is indicated in stable isotope compositions, most probably after the Late Glacial Maximum. At that time, a change of the marine source of the precipitation from a more humid source to the present North Atlantic source region was assumed. For the Ice Complex, a continuous age-height relationship was established, indicating syngenetic vertical ice wedge growth and sediment accumulation rates of 0.7 m/ky. During the Holocene optimum, ice wedge growth was probably limited due to the extensive formation of lacustrine environments. Holocene ice wedges in thermokarst depressions (alases) and thermoerosional valleys (logs) were formed after climate deterioration from about 4.5 ka until the present. Winter temperatures were warmer at this time as compared to the cooler Pleistocene. Migration of bound water between ice wedges and segregated ice may have altered the isotopic composition of old ice wedges. The presence of ice wedges as diagnostic features for permafrost conditions since 60 ka, implies that a large glacier extending over the Laptev Sea shelf did not exist. For the remote non-glaciated areas of Northern Siberia, ice wedges were established as a powerful climate archive.

Neodymium isotopes from fossil fish teeth and detrital sediment, and oxygen isotopes from benthic forams from ODP Hole 119-738 B

Ephemeral polar glaciations during the middle-to-late Eocene (48-34 Ma) have been proposed based on far-field ice volume proxy records and near-field glacigenic sediments, although the scale, timing, and duration of these events are poorly constrained. Here we confirm the existence of a transient cool event within a new high-resolution benthic foraminiferal d18O record at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 738 (Kerguelen Plateau; Southern Ocean). This event, named the Priabonian oxygen isotope maximum (PrOM) Event, lasted ~140 kyr and is tentatively placed within magnetochron C17n.1n (~37.3 Ma) based on the correlation to ODP Site 689 (Maud Rise, Southern Ocean). A contemporaneous change in the provenance of sediments delivered to the Kerguelen Plateau occurs at the study site, determined from the <63 µm fraction of decarbonated and reductively leached sediment samples. Changes in the mixture of bottom waters, based on fossil fish tooth epsilon-Nd, were less pronounced and slower relative to the benthic d18O and terrigenous epsilon-Nd changes. Terrigenous sediment epsilon-Nd values rapidly shifted to less radiogenic signatures at the onset of the PrOM Event, indicating an abrupt change in provenance favoring ancient sources such as the Paleoproterozoic East Antarctic craton. Bottom water epsilon-Nd reached a minimum value during the PrOM Event, although the shift begins much earlier than the terrigenous epsilon-Nd excursion. The origin of the abrupt change in terrigenous sediment provenance is compatible with a change in Antarctic terrigenous sediment flux and/or source as opposed to a reorganization of ocean currents. A change in terrigenous flux and/or source of Antarctic sediments during the oxygen isotope maximum suggests a combination of cooling and ice growth in East Antarctica during the early late Eocene.

(Table 1) Age model for ODP Site 175-1077 based on oxygen isotopes of Globigerinoides ruber pink

Palynological records from the Congo fan reveal environmental change in equatorial Africa occurring 1.05 Ma ago, 100 k.y. before the mid-Pleistocene climatic shift at 0.9 Ma. Prior to 1.05 Ma, a glacial-interglacial rhythm is not obvious in the African vegetation variation. Afterwards, Podocarpus spread in the mountains of central Africa mainly during glacials and Congo River discharge decreased. The sequence of vegetation variation associated with the mid-Pleistocene glacials and interglacials differed from that observed during the late Pleistocene. Between 0.9 and 0.6 Ma, interglacials were characterized by warm dry conditions and glacials were characterized by cool humid conditions, while during the past 0.2 Ma glacials were cold and dry and interglacials warm and humid. Our data indicate that before the Northern Hemisphere ice caps dramatically increased in size (0.9-0.6 Ma), low-latitude climate forcing and response in the tropics played an important role in the initiation of 100 k.y. ice-age cycles. During the mid to late Pleistocene, however, the climate conditions in the tropics were increasingly influenced by the glacial-interglacial variations of continental ice sheets.

Holocene Labrador Sea planktonic foraminiferal oxygen isotopes and trace element data, and ice rafted debris percentage

Formation of Labrador Sea Water proper commenced about 7000 years ago during the Holocene interglacial. To test whether fresher surface water conditions may have inhibited Labrador Sea Water convection during the early Holocene we measured planktonic foraminiferal (Globigerina bulloides) oxygen isotopes (d18O) and Mg/Ca ratios at Orphan Knoll (cores HU91-045-093 and MD95-2024, 3488 m) in the Labrador Sea to reconstruct shallow subsurface summer conditions (temperature and seawater d18O). Lighter foraminiferal d18O values are recorded during the early Holocene between 11000 and 7000 years ago. Part of these lighter foraminiferal d18O values can be explained by increased calcification temperatures. Reconstructed seawater d18O values were, however, still on average 0.5 per mil lighter compared with those of recent times, confirming that fresher surface waters in the Labrador Sea were probably a limiting factor in Labrador Sea Water formation during the early Holocene.

Planktonic foraminifera Mg/Ca paleotemperatures and oxygen isotopes of ODP Hole 175-1075C

High resolution planktonic foraminifera Mg/Ca paleotemperatures and oxygen isotopes of seawater of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1078 (off Angola) have been reconstructed and reveal insights into the seasonal thermal evolution of the Angola Current (AC), the Angola-Benguela Front (ABF), and the Benguela Current (BC) during the last glacial (50-23.5 ka BP). Special emphasis is put on time intervals possibly associated with the North Atlantic Heinrich Stadials (HS), which are thought to lead to an accumulation of heat in the South Atlantic due to a reduction of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Within dating uncertainties, Globigerinoides ruber (pink) Mg/Ca-based sea surface temperature (SST) estimates that represent southern hemisphere summer surface conditions show several warming episodes that coincide with North Atlantic HS, thus supporting the concept of the bipolar thermal seesaw. In contrast, the Mg/Ca-based temperatures of Globigerina bulloides, representing the SST of the ABF/BC system during southern hemisphere winter, show no obvious response to the North Atlantic HS in the study area. We suggest that surface water cooling during the winter season is due to enhanced upwelling or upwelling of colder water masses which has most likely mitigated a warming of the ABF/BC system during HS. We further speculate that the seasonal asymmetry in our SST record results from seasonal differences in the dominance of atmospheric and oceanic teleconnections during periods of northern high latitude cooling.