Late quaternary paleoceanography and paleoclimatology from sediment cores of the eastern Arctic Ocean

Box cores recovered along a N-S transect in the Eurasian Basin allow the establishment of a time scale for the Late Quaternary history of the Arctic Ocean, based on stable oxygen isotope stratigraphy and AMS 14C dating of planktonic foraminifers (N. pachyderma 1.c.). This high resolution stratigraphy, in combination with sedimentological investigations (e.g., coarse fraction analysis, carbonate content, productivity of foraminifers), was carried out to reconstruct the glacial and inter-glacial Arctic Ocean paleoenvironment. The sediment cores, which can be correlated throughout the sampling area in the Eastern Arctic Ocean, were dated as representing oxygen isotope stages 1 to 4/5. The sedimentation rates varied between a few mm ka-1 in glacials and approximately one cm ka-1 during the Holocene. The sediments allow a detailed sedimentological description of the depositional regime and the paleoceanography of the Eastern Arctic Ocean. Changing ratios of biogenic and lithogenic components in the sediments reflect variations in the oceanographic circulation pattern in the Eurasian Basin during the Late Quaternary. Carbonate content (1-9wt.%), productivity of foraminifers (high in interglacial, low in glacial stages) and the terrigenous components are in good correlation with glacial and interglacial climatic fluctuations