Climate proxies recorded in sediments from borehole Hank, Netherlands, for the Pliocene of the North Sea

The mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (mPWP, 3264-3025 ka) represents the most recent interval in Earth's history where atmospheric CO2 levels were similar to today. Here, we present a multi-proxy record of Pliocene climate change in the coastal Southern North Sea Basin (SNSB) based on the sedimentary record from borehole Hank, the Netherlands (drilled by TNO, Dutch Geological Survey). We present the stable oxygen and carbon isotope (δ18O and δ13C) measurements of the endobenthic foraminifera species Cassidulina laevigata, and present a new age model for the late Pliocene of the Southern North Sea. This results in a tuned age framework for the SNSB for the Late Pliocene (~3190-2770 ka). Our multi-proxy climate reconstruction for this interval includes biomarker-based SST reconstructions (TEX86, UK37, LDI)

Towards reliable reconstructions of Pliocene terrestrial temperatures using branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers

The mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP, 3.3-3.0 million years ago) is considered to be an analogue for the climate of the mid-21st century. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations, continental configurations, land elevations, and ocean bathymetry during the mPWP were similar to present. However, global temperatures were warmer by 2-4 °C indicating that current climate may not have achieved equilibrium. Continental temperature records are a big missing puzzle piece in our understanding of mPWP climate and in past climates in general, because there are very few climate proxies that reconstruct this parameter. In this PhD thesis, continental temperatures are reconstructed using so-called branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) that are produced by bacteria in soils, where their molecular structure is correlated to mean air temperature (MAT). Hence, upon mobilization, transport, and deposition in coastal marine sediments, brGDGTs can be used to reconstruct MAT of the adjacent river catchment. However, their applicability as paleothermometer may be hampered by in situ production of brGDGTs in marine settings. Here, a method is presented to correct for marine-derived brGDGTs in coastal zones and applied to a sediment core from the Southern North Sea Basin. The obtained record shows that the temperature of the proto-Rhine Meuse catchment at that time (i.e. North Western Europe) was approximately 1-3 °C higher than present, which is comparable to mPWP temperatures reconstructed by climate modelling studies. Subsequent reconstruction of other climate parameters using the same sediments reveals that the evolution of marine and terrestrial climate of the Southern North Sea area was de-coupled during the mPWP

Production of branched tetraethers in the marine realm : Svalbard fjord sediments revisited

Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are bacterial membrane lipids thought to be predominantly produced on land. They are used as a terrestrial paleothermometer based on an empirical relation between their molecular composition and air temperature in surface soils worldwide. The proxy has been applied in continental margin sediments based on the assumption that all brGDGTs originate from land and are transported to marine sediments predominantly by rivers. However, this assumption has been challenged by the discovery of in situ brGDGT production in the coastal marine environment. To better understand marine brGDGT production, we examined newly collected marine surface sediments from the Krossfjorden and Kongsfjorden in Svalbard with a chromatography method to separate previously co-eluting 5- and 6-methylated brGDGT isomers. ‘Living’ intact polar lipid (IPL)-derived and ‘fossil’ core lipid (CL) brGDGTs were also studied for a subset of fjord sediments. The relative proportion of cyclopentane moieties in tetramethylated brGDGTs, used as indicator for brGDGT production in coastal marine settings, is much higher in the fjord sediments (#ringstetra = 0.65–0.93 for CL and 0.24–0.79 for IPL-derived brGDGTs) compared to those in nearby soils (#ringstetra = 0.00–0.37), and confirms the predominantly marine source of the brGDGTs in the fjord. Surprisingly, however, IPL-derived brGDGTs have a substantially lower #ringstetra (up to 0.52 offset) compared to that of CL-brGDGTs in the same sediment. This suggests that brGDGTs are produced in situ in different distributions throughout the year, of which the CL distribution in the sediment is an integrated signal. The offset in #ringstetra between IPL-derived and CL brGDGTs varies between 0.15 and 0.52 and increases towards the open ocean, possibly linking brGDGT production to the natural salinity gradient and associated microbial community changes

Organic proxies and tetraether lipids fractional abundances of Hank core

The Pliocene is often regarded as a suitable analogue for future climate, due to an overall warmer climate (2-3 °C) coupled with atmospheric CO2 concentrations largely similar to present values (∼400 ppmv). Numerous Pliocene sea surface temperature (SST) records are available, however, little is known about climate in the terrestrial realm. Here we generated a Pliocene continental temperature record for Northwestern Europe based on branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) membrane lipids stored in a marine sedimentary record from the western Netherlands. The total organic carbon (TOC) content of the sediments and its stable carbon isotopic composition (δ ^13^C~org~) indicate a strong transition from primarily marine derived organic matter (OM) during the Pliocene, to predominantly terrestrially derived OM after the transition into the Pleistocene. This trend is supported by the ratio of branched and isoprenoid tetraethers (BIT index). The marine-terrestrial transition indicates a likely change in brGDGT sources in the core, which may complicate the applicability of the brGDGT paleotemperature proxy in this setting. Currently, the application of the brGDGT-based paleothermometer on coastal marine sediments has been hampered by a marine overprint. Here, we propose a method to disentangle terrestrial and marine sources based on the degree of cyclization of tetramethylated brGDGTs (#rings) using a linear mixing model based on the global soil calibration set and a newly developed coastal marine temperature transfer function. Application of this method on our brGDGT record resulted in a 'corrected' terrestrial temperature record (MATterr). This latter record indicates that continental temperatures were ∼12-14 °C during the Early Pliocene, and 10.5-12 °C during the Mid Pliocene, confirming other Pliocene pollen based terrestrial temperature estimates from Northern and Central Europe. Furthermore, two colder (Δ 5-7 °C) periods in the Pliocene MATterr record show that the influence of Pliocene glacials reached well into NW Europe

BayMBT : A Bayesian calibration model for branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in soils and peats

Accurate temperature records for the deep geological past are a vital component of paleoclimate research. Distributional changes of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) lipids in geological archives including paleosoils are a promising indicators to infer past continental air temperatures. However, the ‘orphan’ status of the brGDGTs, the potential effect of temperature-independent parameters on their relative distribution, and the uneven geographical distribution of the soils used for calibration contribute to the high uncertainty of brGDGT-based transfer functions (root mean squared error, RMSE: ±5 °C). Here, we expand the soil dataset from the previous calibration(s) with new and published soil data. We use Bayesian statistics to calibrate the relationship of the 5-methyl brGDGTs (MBT′5Me) and mean annual air temperature (MAAT). The addition of soils from warm (>28 °C) environments from India substantially increases the upper limit of the Bayesian calibration (BayMBT) from 25 to 29 °C, aiding in the generation of temperature records for past greenhouse climates, such as the Eocene. The BayMBT model also effectively minimizes the structured MAAT residuals prevalent in previous calibrations, therefore giving the opportunity to explore confounding factors on the calibration. We formulate a set of alternative calibration models to test the effect of specific environmental parameters and show that soils at mid-latitudes with temperature seasonalities >20 °C are not well described by the BayMBT model. We find that the MBT′5Me index is best correlated to the average temperature of all months >0 °C, called the BayMBT0 model. This finding supports the hypothesis that brGDGT production ceases or slows down in the winter months. However, a persistent feature of the BayMBT model and previous calibrations is the significant scatter at mid-latitudes, which is speculatively linked with a possible increase in diversity of microbial brGDGT-producing communities in these locations

BayMBT: A Bayesian calibration model for branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in soils and peats

Accurate temperature records for the deep geological past are a vital component of paleoclimate research. Distributional changes of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) lipids in geological archives including paleosoils are a promising indicators to infer past continental air temperatures. However, the ‘orphan’ status of the brGDGTs, the potential effect of temperature-independent parameters on their relative distribution, and the uneven geographical distribution of the soils used for calibration contribute to the high uncertainty of brGDGT-based transfer functions (root mean squared error, RMSE: ±5 °C). Here, we expand the soil dataset from the previous calibration(s) with new and published soil data. We use Bayesian statistics to calibrate the relationship of the 5-methyl brGDGTs (MBT′5Me) and mean annual air temperature (MAAT). The addition of soils from warm (>28 °C) environments from India substantially increases the upper limit of the Bayesian calibration (BayMBT) from 25 to 29 °C, aiding in the generation of temperature records for past greenhouse climates, such as the Eocene. The BayMBT model also effectively minimizes the structured MAAT residuals prevalent in previous calibrations, therefore giving the opportunity to explore confounding factors on the calibration. We formulate a set of alternative calibration models to test the effect of specific environmental parameters and show that soils at mid-latitudes with temperature seasonalities >20 °C are not well described by the BayMBT model. We find that the MBT′5Me index is best correlated to the average temperature of all months >0 °C, called the BayMBT0 model. This finding supports the hypothesis that brGDGT production ceases or slows down in the winter months. However, a persistent feature of the BayMBT model and previous calibrations is the significant scatter at mid-latitudes, which is speculatively linked with a possible increase in diversity of microbial brGDGT-producing communities in these locations