Spatial and temporal dynamics of coccolithophore communities during low production phases in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea

The present investigation was initiated to report on species compositions and dynamics in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea during low production phases in spring and early summer. Thus, the distribution patterns of living coccolithophores during June to July, 1990, February and May, 1991, and March to April, 1995 were investigated. In general, the seasonal development of the phytoplankton started after the yearly dark period and coccolithophores increased in abundance when the water column was more stratified and both temperatures and insolation increased. Cell densities reached a maximum of 207x10~c occospheres/l in the southeastern part of the studied area. However, these high cell densities probably resulted from ,,old" populations, drifted to the Norwegian-Greenland Sea from the North Atlantic. Some of the collected samples did not contain any coccolithophores. In total, 15 coccolithophore species were identified. The diversity was generally higher in the eastern part of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea and to the west the coccolithophore communities often were monospecific. Emiliania huxleyi is the dominant species, but Calciopappus caudatus and Algirosphaera robusta also considerably contribute to the communities. High cell densities of C. caudatus were interpreted as the result of a bloom or more probably close to bloom conditions during the general low productive period. In addition, many of the E. huxleyi coccolith from the surface waters of the southeastern Norwegian-Greenland Sea were heavily corroded. These specimens may have drifted within the Atlantic water for a longer time

Sensitivity of Bunker Cave to climatic forcings highlighted through multi-annual monitoring of rain-, soil-, and dripwaters

The last two decades have seen a considerable increase in studies using speleothems as archives of past climate variability. Caves under study are now monitored for a wide range of environmental parameters and results placed in context with speleothem data. The present study investigates trends from a seven year long monitoring of Bunker Cave, northwestern Germany, in order to assess the hydraulic response and transfer time of meteoric water from the surface to the cave. Rain-, soil-, and dripwater were collected from August 2006 to August 2013 at a monthly to bimonthly resolution and their oxygen and hydrogen isotope composition was measured. Furthermore, drip rates were quantified. Due to different drip characteristics, annual mean values were calculated for the drip rates of each drip site. Correlations of the annual mean drip rate of each site with precipitation and infiltration demonstrate that the annual infiltration, and thus the annual precipitation control the inter-annual drip-rate variability for all except one site. The hydraulic response is not delayed on an annual basis. All drip sites display identical long-term trends, which suggests a draining of a common karst reservoir over these seven years of monitoring. Correlations of soil- and dripwater monthly δ18O and δD values with atmospheric temperature data reveal water transfer times of 3 months to reach a depth of 40 cm (soilwater at site BW 2) and 4 months for 70 cm depth (soilwater at site BW 1). Finally, the water reaches the cave chambers (15 to 30 m below land surface) after ca. 2.5 years. Consequently, a temporal offset of 29 to 31 months (ca. 2.5 years) between the hydraulic response time (no time lag on annual basis) and the water transfer time (time lag of 29 to 31 months) was found, which is negligible with regard to Bunker Cave speleothems because of their slow growth rates. Here, proxies recording precipitation/infiltration and temperature are registered on a decadal scale. Variations in drip rate and thus precipitation and infiltration are recorded by δ13C and Mg/Ca ratios in speleothem calcite. Speleothem δ18O values reflect both temperature and precipitation signals due to drip rate-related fractionation processes. We document that long-term patterns in temperature and precipitation are recorded in dripwater patterns of Bunker Cave and that these are linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)

Last Interglacial Climate in Northern Sweden—Insights from a Speleothem Record

Continental records with absolute dates of the timing and progression of climatic conditions during the Last Interglacial (LIG) from northern Europe are rare. Speleothems from northern Europe have a large potential as archives for LIG environmental conditions since they were formed in sheltered environments and may be preserved beneath ice sheets. Here, we present δ13C and δ18O values from speleothem Kf-21, from Korallgrottan in Jämtland (northwest Sweden). Kf-21 is dated with five MC-ICPMS U-Th dates with errors smaller than ~1 ka. Kf-21 started forming at ~130.2 ka and the main growth phase with relatively constant growth rates lasted from 127.3 ka to 124.4 ka, after which calcite formation ceased. Both δ13C and δ18O show rapid shifts but also trends, with a range of values within their Holocene counterparts from Korallgrottan. Our results indicate an early onset of the LIG in northern Europe with ice-free conditions at ~130 ka. Higher growth rates combined with more negative δ18O values between ~127.3 and 126.8 ka, interpreted here as warmer and more humid conditions, as well as indications of a millennial-scale cold spell centered at 126.2 ka, resemble findings from speleothem records from other parts of Europe, highlighting that these were regional scale climatic patterns

Last Interglacial Climate in Northern Sweden—Insights from a Speleothem Record

Continental records with absolute dates of the timing and progression of climatic conditions during the Last Interglacial (LIG) from northern Europe are rare. Speleothems from northern Europe have a large potential as archives for LIG environmental conditions since they were formed in sheltered environments and may be preserved beneath ice sheets. Here, we present δ13C and δ18O values from speleothem Kf-21, from Korallgrottan in Jämtland (northwest Sweden). Kf-21 is dated with five MC-ICPMS U-Th dates with errors smaller than ~1 ka. Kf-21 started forming at ~130.2 ka and the main growth phase with relatively constant growth rates lasted from 127.3 ka to 124.4 ka, after which calcite formation ceased. Both δ13C and δ18O show rapid shifts but also trends, with a range of values within their Holocene counterparts from Korallgrottan. Our results indicate an early onset of the LIG in northern Europe with ice-free conditions at ~130 ka. Higher growth rates combined with more negative δ18O values between ~127.3 and 126.8 ka, interpreted here as warmer and more humid conditions, as well as indications of a millennial-scale cold spell centered at 126.2 ka, resemble findings from speleothem records from other parts of Europe, highlighting that these were regional scale climatic patterns

Climate Variability in Central Europe during the Last 2500 Years Reconstructed from Four High-Resolution Multi-Proxy Speleothem Records

The Late Holocene was characterized by several centennial-scale climate oscillations including the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. The detection and investigation of such climate anomalies requires paleoclimate archives with an accurate chronology as well as a high temporal resolution. Here, we present 230Th/U-dated high-resolution multi-proxy records (δ13C, δ18O and trace elements) for the last 2500 years of four speleothems from Bunker Cave and the Herbstlabyrinth cave system in Germany. The multi-proxy data of all four speleothems show evidence of two warm and two cold phases during the last 2500 years, which coincide with the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, as well as the Dark Ages Cold Period and the Little Ice Age, respectively. During these four cold and warm periods, the δ18O and δ13C records of all four speleothems and the Mg concentration of the speleothems Bu4 (Bunker Cave) and TV1 (Herbstlabyrinth cave system) show common features and are thus interpreted to be related to past climate variability. Comparison with other paleoclimate records suggests a strong influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation at the two caves sites, which is reflected by warm and humid conditions during the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, and cold and dry climate during the Dark Ages Cold period and the Little Ice Age. The Mg records of speleothems Bu1 (Bunker Cave) and NG01 (Herbstlabyrinth) as well as the inconsistent patterns of Sr, Ba and P suggests that the processes controlling the abundance of these trace elements are dominated by site-specific effects rather than being related to supra-regional climate variability

Bunker Cave stalagmites: an archive for central European Holocene climate variability

Holocene climate was characterised by variability on multi-centennial to multi-decadal time scales. In central Europe, these fluctuations were most pronounced during winter. Here we present a record of past winter climate variability for the last 10.8 ka based on four speleothems from Bunker Cave, western Germany. Due to its central European location, the cave site is particularly well suited to record changes in precipitation and temperature in response to changes in the North Atlantic realm. We present high-resolution records of δ18O, δ13C values and Mg/Ca ratios. Changes in the Mg/Ca ratio are attributed to past meteoric precipitation variability. The stable C isotope composition of the speleothems most likely reflects changes in vegetation and precipitation, and variations in the δ18O signal are interpreted as variations in meteoric precipitation and temperature. We found cold and dry periods between 8 and 7 ka, 6.5 and 5.5 ka, 4 and 3 ka as well as between 0.7 and 0.2 ka. The proxy signals in the Bunker Cave stalagmites compare well with other isotope records and, thus, seem representative for central European Holocene climate variability. The prominent 8.2 ka event and the Little Ice Age cold events are both recorded in the Bunker Cave record. However, these events show a contrasting relationship between climate and δ18O, which is explained by different causes underlying the two climate anomalies. Whereas the Little Ice Age is attributed to a pronounced negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, the 8.2 ka event was triggered by cooler conditions in the North Atlantic due to a slowdown of the thermohaline circulation

Climate-induced speleothem radiocarbon variability on Socotra Island from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Younger Dryas

In this study, the dead carbon fraction (DCF) variations in stalagmite M1-5 from Socotra Island in the western Arabian Sea were investigated through a new set of high-precision U-series and radiocarbon (14C) dates. The data reveal an extreme case of very high and also climate-dependent DCF. For M1-5, an average DCF of 56.2±3.4% is observed between 27 and 18kyrBP. Such high DCF values indicate a high influence of aged soil organic matter (SOM) and nearly completely closed-system carbonate dissolution conditions. Towards the end of the last glacial period, decreasing Mg/Ca ratios suggest an increase in precipitation which caused a marked change in the soil carbon cycling as indicated by sharply decreasing DCF. This is in contrast to the relation of soil infiltration and DCF as seen in stalagmites from temperate zones. For Socotra Island, which is influenced by the East African-Indian monsoon, we propose that more humid conditions and enhanced net infiltration after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) led to dense vegetation and thus lowered the DCF by increasing 14CO2 input into the soil zone. At the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) a sudden change in DCF towards much higher, and extremely variable, values is observed. Our study highlights the dramatic variability of soil carbon cycling processes and vegetation feedback on Socotra Island manifested in stalagmite DCF on both long-term trends and sub-centennial timescales, thus providing evidence for climate influence on stalagmite radiocarbon. This is of particular relevance for speleothem studies that aim to reconstruct past atmospheric 14C (e.g., for the purposes of 14C calibration), as these would rely on largely climate-independent soil carbon cycling above the cave. © 2020 Copernicus GmbH. All rights reserved