Description: Seasonal variations in fluxes of isoprenoid glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) and the estimated temperatures based on TEX86 were examined in sinking particles collected using moored sediment traps in the eastern Atlantic upwelling regions. In the equatorial Guinea Basin, GDGT fluxes show a correlation with opal fluxes, implying that GDGTs are mainly transported via aggregation with diatoms. The fluxweighted TEXH86 temperatures derived from particles collected both at 853 m and 3921 m depth correspondto the water temperature (24.1 _C) of ca. 50 m depth, where nitrate concentration starts to increase. This suggests that nutrient concentrations may affect the depth habitat of Thaumarchaeota, thereby influencing the TEX86-derived water temperatures. In the coastal upwelling off Namibia, TEXH86 temperatures are similar to satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) during the warm season, but the record derived from the trap is delayed relative to the SST by approximately 26 days. Warm biases, however, occur during the cold season. Higher TEX86 values have been found within the oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) in the water column of coastal upwelling regions. Thus, contributions from GDGTs produced in OMZs might explain the warmer temperature estimates during the cold season in regions where OMZs are pronounced. This scenario could explain the observed warm bias off Namibia. We, therefore, suggest that in the eastern Atlantic upwelling systems, nutrient depth distribution and GDGTs produced in OMZs can be potential environmental factors influencing TEX86 in sinking particles. In paleoenvironmental records of TEX86, non-thermal signals have to be considered on regional scales.

Description: The Mediterranean Sea is at the transition between temperate and tropical air masses and as such of importance for studying climate change. The Gulf of Taranto and adjacent SW Adriatic Sea are at the heart of this region. Their sediments are excellently suited for generating high quality environmental records for the last millennia with a sub-decadal resolution. The quality of these records is dependent on a careful calibration of the transfer functions used to translate the sedimentary lipid signals to the local environment. Here, we examine and calibrate the UK′37 and TEX86 lipid-based temperature proxies in 48 surface sediments and relate these to ambient sea surface temperatures and other environmental data. The UK′37 -based temperatures in surface sediments reflect winter/spring sea surface temperatures in agreement with other studies demonstrating maximum haptophyte production during the colder season. The TEX86-based temperatures for the nearshore sites also reflect winter sea surface temperatures. However, at the most offshore sites, they correspond to summer sea surface temperatures. Additional lipid and environmental data including the distribution of the BIT index and remote-sensed chlorophyll-a suggest a shoreward increase of the impact of seasonal and spatial variability in nutrients and control of planktonic archaeal abundance by primary productivity, particle loading in surface waters and/or overprint by a cold-biased terrestrial TEX86 signal. As such the offshore TEX86 values seem to reflect a true summer signal to the effect that offshore UK′37 and TEX86 reconstruct winter and summer temperature, respectively, and hence provide information on the annual temperature amplitude.

Description: In locations of rapid sediment accumulation receiving substantial amounts of laterally transported material the timescales of transport and accurate quantification of the transportedmaterial are at the focus of intense research. Here we present radiocarbon data obtained on co-occurring planktic foraminifera, marine haptophyte biomarkers (alkenones) and total organic carbon (TOC) coupled with excess Thorium-230 (230Thxs)measurements on four sediment cores retrieved in 1649–2879 mwater depth fromtwo such high accumulation drift deposits in the Northeast Atlantic, Björn and Gardar Drifts.While 230Thxs inventories imply strong sediment focussing, no age offsets are observed between planktic foraminifera and alkenones, suggesting that redistribution of sediments is rapid and occurs soon after formation ofmarine organic matter, or that transported material contains negligible amounts of alkenones. An isotopic mass balance calculation based on radiocarbon concentrations of co-occurring sediment components leads us to estimate that transported sediment components contain up to 12% of fossil organic matter that is free of or very poor in alkenones, but nevertheless appears to consist of a mixture of fresh and eroded fossil material. Considering all available constraints to characterize transported material, our results showthat although focussing factors calculated frombulk sediment 230Thxs inventoriesmay allowuseful approximations of bulk redeposition, they do not provide a unique estimate of the amount of each laterally transported sediment component. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence that the occurrence of lateral sediment redistribution alone does not always hinder the use ofmultiple proxies but that individual sediment fractions are affected to variable extents by sediment focussing.

Description: To reconstruct variability of the West African monsoon and associated vegetation changes on precessional and millennial time scales, we analyzed a marine sediment core from the continental slope off Senegal spanning the past 44,000 years (44 ka). We used the stable hydrogen isotopic composition (dD) of individual terrestrial plant wax n-alkanes as a proxy for past rainfall variability. The abundance and stable carbon isotopic composition (d13C) of the same compounds were analyzed to assess changes in vegetation composition (C3/C4 plants) and density. The dD record reveals two wet periods that coincide with local maximum summer insolation from 38 to 28 ka and 15 to 4 ka and that are separated by a less wet period during minimum summer insolation. Our data indicate that rainfall intensity during the rainy season throughout both wet humid periods was similar, whereas the length of the rainy season was presumably shorter during the last glacial than during the Holocene. Additional dry intervals are identified that coincide with North Atlantic Heinrich stadials and the Younger Dryas interval, indicating that the West African monsoon over tropical northwest Africa is linked to both insolation forcing and highlatitude climate variability. The d13C record indicates that vegetation of the western Sahel was consistently dominated by C4 plants during the past 44 ka, whereas C3-type vegetation increased during the Holocene. Moreover, we observe a gradual ending of the Holocene humid period together with unchanging ratio of C3 to C4 plants, indicating that an abrupt aridification due to vegetation feedbacks is not a general characteristic of this time interval.

Description: This study centers on the question: How sensitive are 231Pa/230Th and 10Be/230Th to sediment composition and redistribution? The natural radionuclides 231Pa, 230Th and 10Be recorded in deep sea sediments are tracers for water mass advection and particle fluxes. We investigate the influence of oceanic particle composition on the element adsorption in order to improve our understanding of sedimentary isotope records. We present new data on particle size specific 231Pa and 10Be concentrations. An additional separation step, based on settling velocities, led to the isolation of a very opal-rich phase. We find that opal-rich particles contain the highest 231Pa and 10Be concentrations, and higher 231Pa/230Th and 10Be/230Th isotope ratios than opal-poor particles. The fractionation relative to 230Th induced by the adsorption to opal-rich particles is more pronounced for 231Pa than for 10Be. We conclude that bulk 231Pa/230Th in Southern Ocean sediments is most suitable as a proxy for past opal fluxes. The comparison between two neighboring cores with rapid and slow accumulation rates reveals that these isotope ratios are not influenced significantly by the intensity of sediment focusing at these two study sites. However, a simulation shows that particle sorting by selective removal of sediment (winnowing) could change the isotope ratios. Consequently, 231Pa/230Th should not be used as paleocirculation proxy in cases where a strong loss of opal-rich material due to bottom currents occurred.

Description: We have investigated the delivery of terrestrial organic carbon (OC) to the Amazon shelf and deep sea fan based on soil marker bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs; adenosylhopane and related compounds) and branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), as well as on 14C dating of bulk organic matter. The microbial biomarker records show persistent burial of terrestrial OC, evidenced by almost constant and high BIT values (0.6) and soil marker BHP concentration [80–230 μg/g TOC (total OC)] on the late Holocene shelf and even higher BIT values (0.8–0.9), but lower and more variable soil-marker BHP concentration (40–100 μg/g TOC), on the past glacial deep sea fan. Radiocarbon data show that OC on the shelf is 3–4 kyr older than corresponding bivalve shells, emphasizing the presence of old carbon in this setting. We observe comparable and unexpectedly invariant BHP composition in both marine sediment records, with a remarkably high relative abundance of C-35 amino BHPs including compounds specific for aerobic methane oxidation on the shelf (avg. 50% of all BHPs) and the fan (avg. 40%). Notably, these marine BHP signatures are strikingly similar to those of a methane-producing floodplain area in one of the Amazonian wetland (várzea) regions. The observation indicates that BHPs in the marine sediments may have initially been produced within wetland regions of the Amazon basin and may therefore document persistent export from terrestrial wetland regions, with subsequent re-working in the marine environment, both during recent and past glacial climate conditions.

Description: Although commonly reported in marine and freshwater environments, little is known about the biological sources of long chain alkyl 1,13- and 1,15-diols, and factors controlling their distributions. Here we analyzed the occurrence and distribution of these lipids in a comprehensive set of marine surface sediments and compare their distributions with environmental conditions like sea surface temperature (SST), salinity and nutrient concentrations. Fractional abundances of the C28 1,13-, C30 1,13- and C30 1,15-diols show a strong correlation with SST and based on these results, we propose the Long chain Diol Index (LDI), which expresses the C30 1,15-diol abundance relative to those of C28 1,13-, C30 1,13- and C30 1,15-diols. The LDI shows a strong linear correlation with SST (LDI = 0.033 � SST + 0.095; R2 = 0.969, n = 162) over a temperature range of �3 to 27 �C. Long chain diol distributions in sediments from the South Atlantic close to the Congo River outflow (West Africa) provided a 43 kyr LDI SST record. This record reflects several known climatic events and shows similarities with an alkenone- derived SST record obtained using the same suite of sediments, both in trend and in terms of absolute SST. This confirms the potential of the LDI as a proxy for palaeo-SST reconstruction.

Description: In this study, we present a new multiproxy data set of terrigenous input, marine productivity and sea surface temperature (SST) from 52 surface sediment samples collected along E–W transects in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. Allochthonous terrigenous input was characterized by the distribution of plant wax n-alkanes and soil-derived branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs). 230Th-normalized burial of both compound groups were highest close to the potential sources in Australia and New Zealand and are strongly related to lithogenic contents (232Th), indicating common sources and transport. Detection of both long-chain n -alkanes and brGDGTs at the most remote sites in the open ocean strongly suggests a primarily eolian transport mechanism to at least 110°W, i.e. by prevailing westerly winds. Two independent organic SST proxies were used, the View the MathML sourceU37K′ based on alkenones, and the TEX86 based on isoprenoid GDGTs. Both, View the MathML sourceU37K′ and TEX86 indices show robust relationships with temperature over a temperature range between 0.5 and 20 °C, likely implying different seasonal and regional imprints on the temperature signal. Alkenone-based temperature estimates best reflect modern summer SST in the study area when using the polar calibration of Sikes et al. (1997). In contrast, TEX86-derived temperatures may reflect a subsurface signal rather than surface. 230Th-normalized burial of alkenones is highest close to the Subtropical Front and is positively related to the deposition of lithogenic material throughout the study area. In contrast, highest isoGDGT burial south of the Antarctic Polar Front may be largely controlled by diatom blooms, and thus high opal fluxes during austral summer.

Description: Archaeal and bacterial glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are globally abundant in soils under various climatic conditions, but little is known about their sources, relative distribution, and environmental controls on their diversity in high latitude permafrost deposits. Thus, constraints on GDGT-based proxies, such as methylation of branched GDGTs (MBT) or cyclization of branched GDGTs (CBT) used to infer mean annual temperature or soil pH, are also sparse. We investigated the GDGT diversity in typical North Siberian permafrost deposits including the active layer of polygonal tundra soils (seasonally frozen ground), fluvial terrace/floodplain sediments, Holocene and Pleistocene thermokarst sediments, and late Pleistocene Ice Complex (Yedoma). Our data show that isoprenoid GDGTs are produced by both methanotrophic and methanogenic Euryarchaeota, as well as Thaumarchaeota, but their abundance does not seem to be controlled by the investigated physicochemical parameters including %TOC, %TN, and soil pH. Branched GDGTs (brGDGTs) show similar distributional changes to those observed in other high latitude soil samples, i.e., a dominance of pentamethylated and hexamethylated brGDGTs, likely reflecting the adaptation to low temperatures and a positive correlation of the degree of cyclization with soil pH. Specifically, brGDGT-IIIa correlates positively with %TOC and %TN and negatively with soil pH, while brGDGT-Ib and brGDGT-IIb correlate negatively with %TOC and %TN and positively with pH. Moreover, we observe a negative correlation between 5-methyl and 6-methyl brGDGTs without cyclopentane moieties (except brGDGT-IIIa), but this anticorrelation does not seem to be related to the investigated physicochemical parameters. The observed brGDGT distribution yields a permafrost-specific soil pH calibration, pH0 PF ¼ 1:8451 � CBT0 PF þ 8:5396 (r2 = 0.60, RMSE = 0.074; n = 109). The different investigated deposit types show some distinct GDGT distributional changes and appear to be distinguishable based on the relative abundance of crenarchaeol, GDGT-0/(crenarchaeol + GDGT-0) ratios, and CBT’PF values, although we also observe strong heterogeneity for each deposit type. In particular, Yedoma and the active layer of polygonal tundra soils represent distinct endmembers, which differ from each other, as well as from fluvial terrace/floodplain sediments and thermokarst sediments, while the latter two deposit types have similar GDGT fingerprints that are not easily distinguishable. Yet, the observed GDGT distributional differences have implications for GDGT proxies analyzed in aquatic suspended matter and sediments. Quantitative estimates of permafrost erosion, as well as soil pH inferred using BIT indices or CBT’PF, respectively, may be biased by changing relative contributions of different deposit types (carrying their respective GDGT signals) to the exported permafrost OC, particularly from Yedoma and the active layer of polygonal tundra soils.