Description: The modern polar cryosphere reflects an extreme climate state with profound temperature gradients towards high-latitudes. It developed in association with stepwise Cenozoic cooling, beginning with ephemeral glaciations and the appearance of sea ice in the late middle Eocene. The polar ocean gateways played a pivotal role in changing the polar and global climate, along with declining greenhouse gas levels. The opening of the Drake Passage finalized the oceanographic isolation of Antarctica, some 40 Ma ago. The Arctic Ocean was an isolated basin until the early Miocene when rifting and subsequent sea-floor spreading started between Greenland and Svalbard, initiating the opening of the Fram Strait / Arctic-Atlantic Gateway (AAG). Although this gateway is known to be important in Earth’s past and modern climate, little is known about its Cenozoic development. However, the opening history and AAG’s consecutive widening and deepening must have had a strong impact on circulation and water mass exchange between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic. To study the AAG’s complete history, ocean drilling at two primary sites and one alternate site located between 73°N and 78°N in the Boreas Basin and along the East Greenland continental margin are proposed. These sites will provide unprecedented sedimentary records that will unveil (1) the history of shallow-water exchange between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic, and (2) the development of the AAG to a deep-water connection and its influence on the global climate system. The specific overarching goals of our proposal are to study: (1) the influence of distinct tectonic events in the development of the AAG and the formation of deep water passage on the North Atlantic and Arctic paleoceanography, and (2) the role of the AAG in the climate transition from the Paleogene greenhouse to the Neogene icehouse for the long-term (~50 Ma) climate history of the northern North Atlantic. Getting a continuous record of the Cenozoic sedimentary succession that recorded the evolution of the Arctic-North Atlantic horizontal and vertical motions, and land and water connections will also help better understanding the post-breakup evolution of the NE Atlantic conjugate margins and associated sedimentary basins.

Description: We determined δ18OCib values of live (Rose Bengal stained) and dead epibenthic foraminifera Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi, Cibicides lobatulus, and Cibicides refulgens in surface sediment samples from the Arctic Ocean and the Greenland, Iceland, and Norwegian seas (Nordic Sea). This is the first time that a comprehensive δ18OCib data set is generated and compiled from the Arctic Ocean. For comparison, we defined Atlantic Water (AW), upper Arctic Bottom Water (uABW), and Arctic Bottom water (ABW) by their temperature/salinity characteristics and calculated mean equilibrium calcite δ18Oequ from summer sea-water δ18Ow and in situ temperatures. As a result, in the Arctic environment we compensate for Cibicidoides- and Cibicides-specific offsets from equilibrium calcite of − 0.35 and − 0.55 ‰, respectively. After this taxon-specific adjustment, mean δ18OCib values plausibly reflect the density stratification of principle water masses in the Nordic Sea and Arctic Ocean. In addition, mean δ18OCib from AW not only significantly differs from mean δ18OCib from ABW, but also δ18OCib from within AW differentiates in function of provenience and water mass age. Furthermore, in shallow waters brine-derived low δ18Ow can significantly lower the δ18OCib of Cibicides spp. and thus δ18OCib may serve as a paleobrine indicator. There is no statistically significant difference, however, between deeper water masses mean δ18OCib of the Nordic Sea, and of the Eurasian and Amerasian basins, and no influence of low-δ18Ow brines is recorded in Recent uABW and ABW δ18OCib of C. wuellerstorfi. This may be due to dilution of a low-δ18Ow brine signal in the deep sea, and/or to preferential incorporation of relatively high-δ18Ow brines from high-salinity shelves. Although our data encompass environments with seasonal sea-ice and brine formation supposed to ultimately ventilate the deep Arctic Ocean, δ18OCib from uABW and ABW do not indicate negative excursions. This may challenge hypotheses that call for enhanced Arctic brine release to explain negative benthic δ18O spikes in deep-sea sediments from the late Pleistocene North Atlantic Ocean.

Description: Previous studies on surface temperature reconstructions for the last 2000 years (2 k) revealed a long-term cooling trend for the last millennium in comparison to the previous millennium. However, knowledge on the decadal- to centennial-scale variability in sea surface temperature and the underlying governing mechanisms throughout the period is limited. We reconstructed high-resolution continuous sea surface temperature changes over the last 2 k in the northwest Pacific margin based on the alkenone unsaturation index. Our alkenone temperature record revealed enhanced and more rapidly changing climate variability during the last millennium (approximately 1200–1850 Common Era) than during the previous millennium. Cold and hot extremes also occurred more frequently during the last millennium. The enhanced and rapidly changing climate variability appears to be associated with frequent volcanic eruptions and grand solar minima. The reconstructed surface temperature variability tends to be associated with variations in the East Asia summer monsoon and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, implying that these variations are also enhanced in the last millennium than in the previous millennium.