ALBERT

Description: During expedition 202 aboard the RV Sonne in 2009, 39 seafloor surface sediment sites were sampled over a wide sector of the North Pacific and adjoining Bering Sea. The data served to infer land–ocean linkages of terrigenous sediment supply in terms of major sources and modes of sediment transport within an over-regional context. This is based on an integrated approach dealing with grain-size analysis, bulk mineralogy and clay mineralogy in combination with statistical data evaluation (end-member modelling of grainsize data, fuzzy cluster analysis of mineralogical data). The findings on clay mineralogy served to update those of earlier work extracted from the literature. Today, two processes of terrigenous sediment supply prevail in the study area: fardistance aeolian sediment supply to the pelagic North Pacific, and hemipelagic sediment dispersal from nearby land sources via ocean currents along the continental margins and island arcs. Aeolian particles show the finest grain sizes (clay and fine silt), whereas hemipelagic sediments have high abundances of coarse silt. Exposed sites on seamounts and the continental slope are partly swept by strong currents, leading to residual enrichment of fine sand. Four sediment sources canbe distinguished on the basis of distinct index minerals revealed by statistical data analysis: dust plumes from central Asia (quartz, illite), altered materials from the volcanic regions of Kamchatka and the Aleutian Arc (smectite), detritus from the Alaskan Cordillera (chlorite, hornblende), and fluvial detritus from far-eastern Siberia and the Alaska mainland (quartz, feldspar, illite). These findings confirm those of former studies but considerably expand the geographic range of this suite of proxies as far south as 39°N in the open North Pacific. The present integrated methodological approach proved useful in identifying the major modern processes of terrigenous sediment supply to the study region. This aspect deserves attention in the selection of sediment core sites for future palaeoenvironmental reconstructions related to aeolian and glacial dynamics, as well as the recognition of palaeoocean circulation patterns in general.

Description: Situated in the Yana-Highlands, the Batagai profile is one of the few inland permafrost outcrops in Yakutia and, for the time being, the biggest and most active thermoerosional cirque worldwide. With Yerkhoyansk recorded as place of the pole of cold, the Yana Highlands represent the region with the most severe climatic continentality in the northern hemisphere. In contrast to the numerous sequences in today’s coastal lowlands, the Batagai sequence was always unaffected by maritime climate influence during its formation and thus better indicates the macro-climate evolution in NE-Siberia. As result of intense thermal degradation, the outcrop formed within 30 years only and cut deep into ice-rich permafrost deposits. The 60 m deep outcrop is now about 850 m in diameter, but erosion rates as high as 15 m/year are changing the dimensions continuously. The Batagai profile thus represents a unique window into the past (and future) of ice-rich permafrost deposits in Yakutia. Field based observations have shown that the permafrost sequence consists of 4 distinct units: below a thin Holocene surface cover, a 30 meter thick Ice Complex with characteristic thick ice wedges has formed. At the base of the Ice Complex, there is an up to 2 m thick layer of plant material including large woody remains. Subjacent to this organic layer of supposedly Eemian origin, there is a horizontally stratified unit composed of silty-sand and without thick syngenetic ice wedges presumably deposited during the Middle Pleistocene. At the very base of the sequence, there appears to emerge another unit including syngenetic ice wedges. This unit was not accessible for sampling. The accessible upper about 45 meter of the sequence were sampled from top to bottom in one meter steps using, due to the difficult accessibility of the permafrost wall, thermokarst mounds in the less steep part of the outcrop. The samples were taken for sedimentological analyses and especially for plant macrofossil and other palaeoecological studies. Whereas sediments give insight into the genesis of the sequence, fossil plant macroremains provide information on local vegetation patterns and habitats at the time of deposition; while palynological analyses reflect the regional vegetation and climate history. First palaeobotanical results will be represented in Session 13: Palaeoenvironments in permafrost affected areas. The sedimentological analyses revealed that, despite clearly delimitable bedding units visible at the outcrop, there is no distinct litho-stratigraphical differentiation recognizable in the grain size distribution or other sedimentological parameters. Accordingly, the sequence is characterized by a grain size signature typical for Ice Complex deposits. In comparison to other Yakutian ice-rich permafrost sequences, e.g. in the coastal lowlands, the Batagai profile is however distinguished by a higher fraction of fine sand over the whole recorded sequence. This might be due to increased aeolian deposition from local sources, e.g. from barren ridges in the highlands uncovered by vegetation. The assumption that aeolian deposition played a substantial role in the formation of the sequence is also suggested by impressive dunes in the immediate vicinity of the profile at the boundary of Batagai city.

Description: A multi-proxy study including sedimentological, mineralogical, biogeochemical and micropaleontological methods was conducted on sediment core PS69/849-2 retrieved from Burton Basin, MacRobertson Shelf, East Antarctica. The goal of this study was to depict the deglacial and Holocene environmental history of the MacRobertson Land–Prydz Bay region. A special focus was put on the timing of ice-sheet retreat and the variability of bottom-water formation due to sea ice formation through the Holocene. Results from site PS69/849-2 provide the first paleo-environmental record of Holocene variations in bottom-water production probably associated to the Cape Darnley polynya, which is the second largest polynya in the Antarctic. Methods included end-member modeling of laser-derived high-resolution grain size data to reconstruct the depositional regimes and bottom-water activity. The provenance of current-derived and ice-transported material was reconstructed using clay-mineral and heavy-mineral analysis. Conclusions on biogenic production were drawn by determination of biogenic opal and total organic carbon. It was found that the ice shelf front started to retreat from the site around 12.8 ka BP. This coincides with results from other records in Prydz Bay and suggests warming during the early Holocene optimum next to global sea level rise as the main trigger. Ice-rafted debris was then supplied to the site until 5.5 cal. ka BP, when Holocene global sea level rise stabilized and glacial isostatic rebound on MacRobertson Land commenced. Throughout the Holocene, three episodes of enhanced bottom-water activity probably due to elevated brine rejection in Cape Darnley polynya occured between 11.5 and 9 cal. ka BP, 5.6 and 4.5 cal. ka BP and since 1.5 cal. ka BP. These periods are related to shifts from warmer to cooler conditions at the end of Holocene warm periods, in particular the early Holocene optimum, the mid-Holocene warm period and at the beginning of the neoglacial. In contrast, between 7.7 and 6.7 cal. ka BP, brine rejection shut down, maybe owed to warm conditions and pronounced open-water intervals.

Description: In the arid environment, due to the scarcity of a continuous terrestrial archive, lacustrine sequences are often employed as a paleoenvironmental repository. However, numerous spatial and temporal heterogeneities exist concerning previously studied sites in arid central Asia. Furthermore, surveys using a XRF core scanning technique on lacustrine sequences retrieved in hyperarid desert settings are largely rare. Hence, two parallel sediment cores (ONW I; ONW II) were retrieved from Orog Nuur, in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Continuous, high-resolution elemental abundances at a 1-cm scanning step size were examined in core ONW II using XRF core scanning. To constrain the data quality, elements with high error margins relative to measured peak areas and those elements/proxies below the significance level during the multivariate statistics are excluded for environmental/ provenance implications. Based on multivariate statistical evaluation, the bulk-geochemistry of the core sediments are governed by (1) grain-size composition, (2) authigenic productivity (Ca, Cl, CaCO3) in an alkaline environment, (3) allochthonous organic material (TOC and C/Natomic), and (4) terrigenous input via fluvial inflows, as well as quasi-constant aeolian input through the late Quaternary (Al, Si, K, Ti, and Fe). Disparate source lithotypes, as well as authigenic productivity of the lake system existed before and after Termination I. The Holocene was dominated by a distinct high productivity alkaline environment with more felsic and alkaline input relative to the late Pleistocene. This might be attributed to an increased hydrodynamic strength of riverine inflow and/or intensified erosion and weathering of felsic source rocks in the upper catchment of the Orog Nuur. Therefore, in order to gain a better understanding of the bulk-geochemistry of lake sediments, the coupled provenance and environmental signatures, as well as land surface processes in the catchment need to be systematically discerned. Thus, the XRF core scanning data obtained in this study would have practical and complimentary merit for other lacustrine studies focused on the desert realm across the globe.

Description: Fossil diatom assemblages in a sediment core from a small lake in Central Kamchatka (Russia) were used to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental conditions of the late Holocene. The waterbody may be a kettle lake that formed on a moraine of the Two-Yurts Lake Valley, located on the eastern slope of the Central Kamchatka Mountain Chain. At present, it is a seepage lake with no surficial outflow. Fossil diatom assemblages show an almost constant ratio between planktonic and periphytic forms throughout the record. Downcore variations in the relative abundances of diatom species enabled division of the core into four diatom assemblage zones, mainly related to changes in abundances of Aulacoseira subarctica, Stephanodiscus minutulus, and Discostella pseudostelligera and several benthic species. Associated variations in the composition and content of organic matter are consistent with the diatom stratigraphy. The oldest recovered sediments date to about 3220 BC. They lie below a sedimentation hiatus and likely include reworked deposits from nearby Two-Yurts Lake. The initial lake stage between 870 and 400 BC was characterized by acidic shallow-water conditions. Between 400 BC and AD 1400, lacustrine conditions were established, with highest contributions from planktonic diatoms. The interval between AD 1400 and 1900 might reflect summer cooling during the Little Ice Age, indicated by diatoms that prefer strong turbulence, nutrient recycling and cooler summer conditions. The timing of palaeolimnological changes generally fits the pattern of neoglacial cooling during the late Holocene on Kamchatka and in the neighbouring Sea of Okhotsk, mainly driven by the prevailing modes of regional atmospheric circulation.

Description: Thermokarst lakes in the Siberian Arctic contain sediment archives that can be used for paleoenvironmental inference. Until now, however, there has been no study from the inner Lena River Delta with a focus on diatoms. The objective of this study was to investigate how the diatom community in a thermokarst lake responded to past limnogeological changes and what specific factors drove variations in the diatom assemblage. We analysed fossil diatom species, organic content, grain-size distribution and elemental composition in a sediment core retrieved in 2009 from a shallow thermokarst lake in the Arga Complex, western Lena River Delta. The core contains a 3,000-year record of sediment accumulation. Shifts in the predominantly benthic and epiphytic diatom species composition parallel changes in sediment characteristics. Paleoenvironmental and limnogeological development, inferred from multiple biological and sedimentological variables, are discussed in the context of four diatom zones, and indicate a strong relation between changes in the diatom assemblage and thermokarst processes. We conclude that limnogeological and thermokarst processes such as lake drainage, rather than direct climate forcing, were the main factors that altered the aquatic ecosystem by influencing, for example, habitat availability, hydrochemistry, and water level.

Description: This article presents a review of the current data on the level of paleolimnological knowledge about lakes in the Russian part of the northern Eurasia. The results of investigation of the northwestern European part of Russia as the best paleolimnologically studied sector of the Russian north is presented in detail. The conditions of lacustrine sedimentation at the boundary between the Late Pleistocene and Holocene and the role of different external factors in formation of their chemical composition, including active volcanic activity and possible large meteorite impacts, are also discussed. The results of major paleoclimatic and paleoecological reconstructions in northern Siberia are presented. Particular attention is given to the databases of abiotic and biotic parameters of lake ecosystems as an important basis for quantitative reconstructions of climatic and ecological changes in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.