ALBERT

Description: Coinciding with global warming, Arctic sea ice has rapidly decreased during the last four decades and climate scenarios suggest that sea ice may completely disappear during summer within the next about 50-100 years. Here we produce Arctic sea ice biomarker proxy records for the penultimate glacial (Marine Isotope Stage 6) and the subsequent last interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5e). The latter is a time interval when the high latitudes were significantly warmer than today. We document that even under such warmer climate conditions, sea ice existed in the central Arctic Ocean during summer, whereas sea ice was significantly reduced along the Barents Sea continental margin influenced by Atlantic Water inflow. Our proxy reconstruction of the last interglacial sea ice cover is supported by climate simulations, although some proxy data/model inconsistencies still exist. During late Marine Isotope Stage 6, polynya-type conditions occurred off the major ice sheets along the northern Barents and East Siberian continental margins, contradicting a giant Marine Isotope Stage 6 ice shelf that covered the entire Arctic Ocean.

Description: In this paper the relationship between whole-core compressional wave velocities and gamma-ray attenuation porosities of sediments cored at CRP-2/2A is examined, and compared with results from CRP-1, CRP-2/2A core-plug samples, and global models for velocity/porosity relationships of marine sediments. The high degree of data scatter observed in the velocity/porosity relationship of CRP-1 core is even larger in CRP-2/2A core. The general pattern of the velocity/porosity relationship is similar in CRP-2/2A whole core and core plug measurements. Despite scatter, all data indicate a strong primary dependence of velocity on porosity. This relationship appears to be independent of lithology except for sections with zero porosity and porosity 〉0.6, which are attributed to large lonestones and lapillistones, respectively. Core velocity/porosity patterns of CRP-1 and CRP-2/2A are very similar for sediments from the same age interval (19-23 Ma), both characterized by relatively low velocities (mostly between 2 and 3 km s-1) compared to porosity (0.1 - 0.4). Within this range of porosity, core velocities increase significantly up to more than 4 km s-1 below ca 440 mbsf. The change in the velocity/porosity relationship as a function of core depth is attributed to down-core increase in intergrain coupling enhanced by carbonate cementation. This is confirmed by a positive correlation of carbonate content with velocities higher or lower than empirically predicted from porosity. After removing first-order compaction control from the whole-core porosity record, no significant control by clay content can be identified (R = 0.3). This is different to the results for core from CRP-1 (R = 0.6) which is not cemented.

Description: During the Pleistocene glaciations, Arctic ice sheets on western Eurasia, Greenland and North America terminated at their continental margins. In contrast, the exposed continental shelves in the Beringian region of Siberia are thought to have been covered by a tundra landscape. Evidence of grounded ice on seafloor ridges and plateaux off the coast of the Beringian margin, at depths of up to 1,000 m, have generally been attributed to ice shelves or giant icebergs that spread oceanwards during glacial maxima. Here we identify marine glaciogenic landforms visible in seismic profiles and detailed bathymetric maps along the East Siberian continental margin. We interpret these features, which occur in present water depths of up to 1,200 m, as traces from grounding events of ice sheets and ice shelves. We conclude that the Siberian Shelf edge and parts of the Arctic Ocean were covered by ice sheets of about 1 km in thickness during several Pleistocene glaciations before the most recent glacial period, which must have had a significant influence on albedo and oceanic and atmospheric circulation.

Description: In this study, we present new detailed biomarker-based sea ice records from two sediment cores recovered in the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea. These new biomarker data may provide new insights on processes controlling recent and past sea ice changes. The biomarker proxy records show (i) minimum sea ice extent during the Early Holocene, (ii) a prominent Mid-Holocene short-term high-amplitude variability in sea ice, primary production and Pacific-Water inflow, and (iii) significantly increased sea ice extent during the last ca. 4.5k cal a BP. This Late Holocene trend in sea ice change in the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas seems to be contemporaneous with similar changes in sea ice extent recorded from other Arctic marginal seas. The main factors controlling the millennial variability in sea ice (and surface-water productivity) are probably changes in surface water and heat flow from the Pacific into the Arctic Ocean as well as the long-term decrease in summer insolation. The short-term centennial variability observed in the high-resolution Middle Holocene record is probably related to solar forcing. Our new data on Holocene sea ice variability may contribute to synoptic reconstructions of regional to global Holocene climate change based on terrestrial and marine archives.