Late Pleistocene stratigraphy and paleoceanography in the Chukchi Plateau, western Arctic Ocean

第3回極域科学シンポジウム/特別セッション「これからの北極研究」11月28日（水） 国立極地研究所 2階大会議

Sea ice dynamics across the Mid-Pleistocene transition in the Bering Sea.

Sea ice and associated feedback mechanisms play an important role for both long- and short-term climate change. Our ability to predict future sea ice extent, however, hinges on a greater understanding of past sea ice dynamics. Here we investigate sea ice changes in the eastern Bering Sea prior to, across, and after the Mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT). The sea ice record, based on the Arctic sea ice biomarker IP25 and related open water proxies from the International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1343, shows a substantial increase in sea ice extent across the MPT. The occurrence of late-glacial/deglacial sea ice maxima are consistent with sea ice/land ice hysteresis and land-glacier retreat via the temperature-precipitation feedback. We also identify interactions of sea ice with phytoplankton growth and ocean circulation patterns, which have important implications for glacial North Pacific Intermediate Water formation and potentially North Pacific abyssal carbon storage

Quantified intermediate water oxygenation history of the NE Pacific: A new benthic foraminiferal record from Santa Barbara basin

International audienceThe oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) of the late Quaternary California margin experienced abrupt and dramatic changes in strength and depth in response to changes in intermediate water ventilation, ocean productivity, and climate at orbital through millennial time scales. Expansion and contraction of the OMZ is exhibited at high temporal resolution (107-126 year) by quantitative benthic foraminiferal assemblage changes in two piston cores forming a vertical profile in Santa Barbara Basin (569 m, basin floor; 481 m, near sill depth) to 34 and 24 ka, respectively. Variation in the OMZ is quantified by new benthic foraminiferal groupings and new dissolved oxygen index based on documented relations between species and water-mass oxygen concentrations. Foraminiferal-based paleoenvironmental assessments are integrated with principal component analysis, bioturbation, grain size, CaCO3, total organic carbon, and C-13 to reconstruct basin oxygenation history. Fauna responded similarly between the two sites, although with somewhat different magnitude and taxonomic expression. During cool episodes (Younger Dryas and stadials), the water column was well oxygenated, most strongly near the end of the glacial episode (17-16 ka; Heinrich 1). In contrast, the OMZ was strong during warm episodes (BOlling/AllerOd, interstadials, and Pre-Boreal). During the BOlling/AllerOd, the OMZ shoaled to <360 m of contemporaneous sea level, its greatest vertical expansion of the last glacial cycle. Assemblages were then dominated by Bolivina tumida, reflecting high concentrations of dissolved methane in bottom waters. Short decadal intervals were so severely oxygen-depleted that no benthic foraminifera were present. The middle to late Holocene (6-0 ka) was less dysoxic than the early Holocene

Orbital-scale benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotope stratigraphy at the northern Bering Sea Slope Site U1343 (IODP Expedition 323) and its Pleistocene paleoceanographic significance

A continuous composite oxygen isotope (δ18O) stratigraphy from benthic foraminifera in the Bering Sea was reconstructed in order to provide insight into understanding sea-ice evolution in response to Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. Oxygen isotope records from multiple species of benthic foraminifera at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 323 Site U1343 (54°33.4'N, 176°49.0'E, water depth 1950 m) yield a highly refined orbital-scale age model spanning the last 1.2 Ma, and a refined age model between 1.2 and 2.4 Ma. An inter-species calibration was used to define species offsets and to successfully obtain a continuous composite benthic δ18O record, correlated with the global composite benthic δ18O stack curve LR04 to construct an orbital-scale age model. The consistency of the benthic δ18O stratigraphy with biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy confirms the reliability of both methods for constraining age. The time difference between cyclic changes in sedimentary physical properties and glacial–interglacial cycles since 0.8 Ma is notable, and suggests that physical properties alone cannot be used to construct an orbital-scale age model. Amplitude changes in physical properties and a significant drop in the linear sedimentation rate during glacials after 0.9 Ma indicate that the glacial sea-ice edge extended beyond the Bering Sea Slope (Site U1343) at this time

Controls on the formation and stability of gas hydrate-related bottom-simulating reflectors (BSRs): A case study from the west Svalbard continental slope

The growth and stability of the free-gas zone (FGZ) beneath gas-hydrate related bottom-simulating seismic reflectors (BSRs) is investigated using analytical and numerical analyses to understand the factors controlling the formation and depletion of free gas. For a model based on the continental slope west of Svalbard (a continental margin of north Atlantic type), we find that the FGZ is inherently unstable under a wide range of conditions because upward flow of under-saturated liquid depletes free gas faster than it is produced by hydrate recycling. In these scenarios, the 150-m-thick FGZ that presently exists there would deplete within 105–106 years. We suggest the FGZ is in a stable state, however, that is formed by a diffusion-dominated mechanism that produces low concentrations of gas in a FGZ of steady state thickness. Gas forms across a thick zone because the upward fluid flux is relatively low and because the gas–water solubility decreases to a minimum several hundred meters below the seabed. This newly understood solubility-curvature effect is complementary to hydrate recycling, but becomes the most important factor controlling the presence and properties of the BSR in environments where the rate of upward fluid flow and the rate of hydrate recycling are both relatively low (i.e., rifted continental margins). If the present-day FGZ is in steady state, we estimate that the upward fluid flux in the west Svalbard site must be less than 0.15 mm a?1