ALBERT

Description: In tropical Eastern Africa, vegetation distribution is largely controlled by regional hydrology which has varied over the past 20 000 years. Therefore, accurate reconstructions of past vegetation and hydrological changes are crucial to better understand climate variability in the tropical Eastern African region. Through high-resolution pollen records from a marine sediment core recovered offshore the Rufiji River, our data show significant shifts in pollen assemblages during the last deglaciation identifying, through respective changes in both upland and lowland vegetation, specific responses of plant communities to atmospheric (precipitation) and coastal (coastal dynamics/sea level changes) alterations. Specifically, an interval of maximum pollen representation of dry and open vegetation occurred during the Northern Hemisphere cold Heinrich event 1 (H1) suggesting the expansion of drier upland vegetation under arid conditions. This dry spell is followed by an interval in which forest and humid woodland expanded, indicating a hydrologic shift towards more humid conditions. Droughts during H1 and the return to humid conditions around ~14.8 kyr BP in the uplands are primarily attributed to latitudinal shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) driven by high-latitude Northern Hemisphere climatic fluctuations. Additionally, our results show that the lowland vegetation, consisting of a well developed salt marshes and mangroves in a successional pattern typical for vegetation occurring in intertidal habitats, has responded mainly to local coastal dynamics related to marine inundation frequencies and soil salinity in the Rufiji Delta as well as the local moisture availability. Lowland vegetation shows a substantial expansion of mangrove trees after ~14.8 kyr BP suggesting also an increased moisture availability and river runoff in the coastal area. The results of this study highlight the de-coupled climatic and environmental processes to which the vegetation in the uplands and the Rufiji Delta has responded during the last deglaciation.

Description: In tropical eastern Africa, vegetation distribution is largely controlled by regional hydrology, which has varied over the past 20 000 years. Therefore, accurate reconstructions of past vegetation and hydrological changes are crucial for a better understanding of climate variability in the tropical southeastern African region. We present high-resolution pollen records from a marine sediment core recovered offshore of the Rufiji River delta. Our data document significant shifts in pollen assemblages during the last deglaciation, identifying, through changes in both upland and lowland vegetation, specific responses of plant communities to atmospheric (precipitation) and coastal (coastal dynamics and sea-level changes) alterations. Specifically, arid conditions reflected by a maximum pollen representation of dry and open vegetation occurred during the Northern Hemisphere cold Heinrich event 1 (H1), suggesting that the expansion of drier upland vegetation was synchronous with cold Northern Hemisphere conditions. This arid period is followed by an interval in which forest and humid woodlands expanded, indicating a hydrologic shift towards more humid conditions. Droughts during H1 and the shift to humid conditions around 14.8 kyr BP in the uplands are consistent with latitudinal shifts of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) driven by high-latitude Northern Hemisphere climatic fluctuations. Additionally, our results show that the lowland vegetation, consisting of well-developed salt marshes and mangroves in a successional pattern typical for vegetation occurring in intertidal habitats, has responded mainly to local coastal dynamics related to marine inundation frequencies and soil salinity in the Rufiji Delta as well as to the local moisture availability. Lowland vegetation shows a substantial expansion of mangrove trees after ~ 14.8 kyr BP, suggesting an increased moisture availability and river runoff in the coastal area. The results of this study highlight the decoupled climatic and environmental processes to which the vegetation in the uplands and the Rufiji Delta has responded during the last deglaciation.

Description: A valid assessment of selective aerobic degradation on organic matter (OM) and its impact on OM-based proxies is vital to produce accurate environmental reconstructions. However, most studies investigating these effects suffer from inherent environmental heterogeneities. This includes differences in the initial OM composition, as a result of variable upper water column conditions, or from those induced by selective aerobic degradation. In this study, we used surface samples collected along two meter-scale transects and one longer transect in the northeastern Arabian Sea to constrain initial OM heterogeneity, in order to evaluate selective aerobic degradation on temperature, productivity and alteration indices at the sediment-water interface. All of the alteration indices, the higher plant alkane index, alcohol preservation index, and diol oxidation index, demonstrated that they are sensitive indicators for changes in oxygen content at the sediment-water interface. The export production indices, a cholesterol-based stanol/stenol and dinoflagellate lipid- and cyst-based ratios, showed significant (more than 20%) change over the lateral oxygen gradients. Therefore, they do not exclusively reflect surface water productivity, but can be altered after deposition with varying oxygen content at the sediment-water interface. Two of the investigated proxies, the glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGT) based TEX86 sea surface temperature indices and a productivity index based on phytol, phytane and pristane, did not show any trends related to oxygen concentration at the sediment-water interface. Nevertheless, unrealistic sea surface temperatures were obtained after application of the TEX86, TEX86L, and TEX86H proxies. The phytol-based ratios were likely modified by the sedimentary production of pristane. Our results demonstrate the rapid and selective impact of aerobic organic matter degradation on the lipid and palynomorph composition of surface sediments on a small spatial scale and suggests useful tracers of changing redox conditions along the sediment-water interface.

Description: A valid assessment of selective aerobic degradation on organic matter (OM) and its impact on OM-based proxies is vital to produce accurate environmental reconstructions. However, most studies investigating these effects suffer from inherent environmental heterogeneities. In this study, we used surface samples collected along two meter-scale transects and one longer transect in the northeastern Arabian Sea to constrain initial OM heterogeneity, in order to evaluate selective aerobic degradation on temperature, productivity and alteration indices at the sediment-water interface. All of the studied alteration indices, the higher plant alkane index, alcohol preservation index, and diol oxidation index, demonstrated that they are sensitive indicators for changes in the oxygen regime. Several export production indices, a cholesterol-based stanol/stenol index and dinoflagellate lipid- and cyst-based ratios, showed significant (more than 20%) change only over the lateral oxygen gradients. Therefore, these compounds do not exclusively reflect surface water productivity, but are significantly altered after deposition. Two of the proxies, glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether-based TEX86 sea surface temperature indices and indices based on phytol, phytane and pristane, did not show any trends related to oxygen. Nevertheless, unrealistic sea surface temperatures were obtained after application of the TEX86, TEX86L, and TEX86H proxies. The phytol-based ratios were likely affected by the sedimentary production of pristane. Our results demonstrate the selective impact of aerobic organic matter degradation on the lipid and palynomorph composition of surface sediments along a short lateral oxygen gradient and suggest that some of the investigated proxies may be useful tracers of changing redox conditions at the sediment-water interface.

Description: The present paper is the result of a workshop sponsored by the Research Centre Ocean Margins, the International Graduate College EUROPROX and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar Research. The workshop brought together specialists on organic matter degradation and on proxy-based environmental reconstruction. The paper deals with the main theme of the workshop, understanding the impact of selective degradation/preservation of organic matter (OM) in marine sediments on the interpretation of the fossil record. Special attention is paid to (A) the influence of the molecular composition of OM in relation to the biological and physical depositional environment, including new methods for determining complex organic biomolecules, (B) the impact of selective OM preservation on the interpretation of proxies for marine palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic reconstruction, and (C) past marine productivity and selective preservation in sediments.

Description: The present paper is the result of a workshop sponsored by the DFG Research Center/Cluster of Excellence MARUM "The Ocean in the Earth System", the International Graduate College EUROPROX, and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. The workshop brought together specialists on organic matter degradation and on proxy-based environmental reconstruction. The paper deals with the main theme of the workshop, understanding the impact of selective degradation/preservation of organic matter (OM) in marine sediments on the interpretation of the fossil record. Special attention is paid to (A) the influence of the molecular composition of OM in relation to the biological and physical depositional environment, including new methods for determining complex organic biomolecules, (B) the impact of selective OM preservation on the interpretation of proxies for marine palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic reconstruction, and (C) past marine productivity and selective preservation in sediments. It appears that most of the factors influencing OM preservation have been identified, but many of the mechanisms by which they operate are partly, or even fragmentarily, understood. Some factors have not even been taken carefully into consideration. This incomplete understanding of OM breakdown hampers proper assessment of the present and past carbon cycle as well as the interpretation of OM based proxies and proxies affected by OM breakdown. To arrive at better proxy-based reconstructions "deformation functions" are needed, taking into account the transport and diagenesis-related molecular and atomic modifications following proxy formation. Some emerging proxies for OM degradation may shed light on such deformation functions. The use of palynomorph concentrations and selective changes in assemblage composition as models for production and preservation of OM may correct for bias due to selective degradation. Such quantitative assessment of OM degradation may lead to more accurate reconstruction of past productivity and bottom water oxygenation. Given the cost and effort associated with programs to recover sediment cores for paleoclimatological studies, as well as with generating proxy records, it would seem wise to develop a detailed sedimentological and diagenetic context for interpretation of these records. With respect to the latter, parallel acquisition of data that inform on the fidelity of the proxy signatures and reveal potential diagenetic biases would be of clear value.