ALBERT

Description: Baffin Bay is a semi-enclosed basin connecting the Arctic Ocean and the western North Atlantic, thus making out a significant pathway for heat exchange. Here we reconstruct the alternating advection of relatively warmer and saline Atlantic waters versus the incursion of colder Arctic water masses entering Baffin Bay through the multiple gateways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Nares Strait during the Holocene. We carried out benthic foraminiferal assemblage analyses, X-ray fluorescence scanning, and radiocarbon dating of a 738 cm long marine sediment core retrieved from eastern Baffin Bay near Upernavik, Greenland (Core AMD14-204C; 987 m water depth). Results reveal that eastern Baffin Bay was subjected to several oceanographic changes during the last 9.2 kyr. Waning deglacial conditions with enhanced meltwater influxes and an extensive sea-ice cover prevailed in eastern Baffin Bay from 9.2 to 7.9 ka. A transition towards bottom water amelioration is recorded at 7.9 ka by increased advection of Atlantic water masses, encompassing the Holocene Thermal Maximum. A cold period with growing sea-ice cover at 6.7 ka interrupts the overall warm subsurface water conditions, promoted by a weaker northward flow of Atlantic waters. The onset of the neoglaciation at ca. 2.9 ka is marked by an abrupt transition towards a benthic fauna dominated by agglutinated species, likely in part explained by a reduction of the influx of Atlantic Water, allowing an increased influx of the cold, corrosive Baffin Bay Deep Water originating from the Arctic Ocean to enter Baffin Bay through the Nares Strait. These cold subsurface water conditions persisted throughout the Late Holocene, only interrupted by short-lived warmings superimposed on this cooling trend.

Description: Benthic foraminifera assemblage data for marine sediment core DA17-NG-ST03-039G retrieved in the Westwind Trough on the Northeast Greenland Shelf. The marine gravity core was collected during the NorthGreen2017 cruise on board the research vessel RV Dana. The data covers the period 13.3 to 3.9 cal ka BP. The benthic foraminifera assemblage data was carried out in order to reconstruct the oceanographic development on the Northeast Greenland shelf.

Description: Total sedimentary organic carbon contents (TOC; %), total nitrogen (TN; %), ratio TOC to TN, carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions (‰) from the marine sediment core AMD14-204 that was retrieved from the West Greenland shelf, offshore Upernavik, and which spans the last ca. 9,000 years.

Description: Concentrations of the sea-ice biomarker IP25 and highly branched isoprenoid triene (HBI III) (ng/g), total organic carbon content (TOC; %), IP25 and HBI III concentrations normalized to TOC (ng/gTOC), and fluxes of IP25 and HBI III (ng/unit surface area/yr) from the marine sediment core AMD14-204_CASQ that was retrieved from the West Greenland shelf, offshore Upernavik, and which spans the last ca. 9,000 years.

Description: Baffin Bay is a semi-enclosed basin connecting the Arctic Ocean and the western North Atlantic, thus making out a significant pathway for heat exchange. Here we reconstruct the alternating advection of relatively warmer and saline Atlantic waters versus the incursion of colder Arctic water masses entering Baffin Bay through the multiple gateways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Nares Strait during the Holocene. We carried out benthic foraminiferal assemblage analyses, X-ray fluorescence scanning, and radiocarbon dating of a 738 cm long marine sediment core retrieved from eastern Baffin Bay near Upernavik, Greenland (Core AMD14-204C; 987m water depth). Results reveal that eastern Baffin Bay was subjected to several oceanographic changes during the last 9.2 kyrCE1. Waning deglacial conditions with enhanced meltwater influxes and an extensive sea-ice cover prevailed in eastern Baffin Bay from 9.2 to 7.9 ka. A transition towards bottom water amelioration is recorded at 7.9 ka by increased advection of Atlantic water masses, encompassing the Holocene Thermal Maximum. A cold period with growing sea-ice cover at 6.7 ka interrupts the overall warm subsurface water conditions, promoted by a weaker northward flow of Atlantic waters. The onset of the neoglaciation at ca. 2.9 ka is marked by an abrupt transition towards a benthic fauna dominated by agglutinated species, likely in part explained by a reduction of the influx of Atlantic Water, allowing an increased influx of the cold, corrosive Baffin Bay Deep Water originating from the Arctic Ocean to enter Baffin Bay through the Nares Strait. These cold subsurface water conditions persisted throughout the Late Holocene, only interrupted by short-lived warmings superimposed on this cooling trend.

Description: Raw counts of fossil diatom taxa from the marine sediment core AMD14-204 that was retrieved from the West Greenland shelf, offshore Upernavik, and which spans the last ca. 9,000 years. Quantification was done using a light microscope (Olympus BX53, University of New Brunswick) with phase contrast optics, at 1000x magnification.

Description: Relative contribution of the “marginal ice zone”, “drift-ice/pack-ice” and “summer subsurface” diatom indicator groups, diatom valve and Chaetoceros resting spore concentrations (valves or spores/g), diatom valve and Chaetoceros resting spore fluxes (valves or spores/unit surface area/yr), and total diatom fluxes (valves and spores/unit surface area/yr) from the marine sediment core AMD14-204 that was retrieved from the West Greenland shelf, offshore Upernavik, and which spans the last ca. 9,000 years.