timing of abrupt climate change a precise clock 1 many paleoclimatic data reveal a 1 500 year cyclicity of unknown origin a crucial question is how stable and regular this cycle is an analysis of the gisp2 ice core record from greenland reveals that abrupt climate events appear to be paced by a 1 470 year cycle with a period that is probably stable to within a few percent with 95 confidence the period is maintained to better than 12 over at least 23 cycles this highly precise clock points to an origin outside the earth system oscillatory modes within the earth system can be expected to be far more irregular in period

biological forcing of hemipelagic sedimentary laminae evidence from odp site 893 santa barbara basin california core observation x radiography and scanning electron microanalysis of distinctly laminated indistinctly laminated and nonlaminated sediments from odp site 893 show that laminated as well as nonlaminated i e massive hemipelagic sediments can form in the absence of bioturbation this view contrasts with conventional sedimentological interpretations equating laminated hemipelagic sediments with anoxic water masses i e absence of bioturbation and nonlaminated sedimentary intervals exclusively with oxygenation episodes that permitted infaunal colonization we conclude that heterogeneities in the texture and or composition of sediment supply are necessary for the production of laminated sediments the absence of hydraulic and biological reworking permits their preservation laminae at site 893 have two prominent components biosilica and terrigenous detritus compositional contrasts between adjacent laminae in x radiographs reflect short term seasonal and subseasonal heterogeneities in sediment flux core intervals with large contrasts in density and or composition between adjacent laminae are termed as having high bimodality hb hb couplets produce distinctly laminated sediments that intergrade vertically with indistinctly laminated and nonlaminated sediments adjacent laminae in indistinctly laminated sediments possess minimal contrasts in bulk density and composition nonlaminated sediments are compositionally and texturally homogeneous many biosiliceous laminae responsible for distinctly laminated hb couplets record mass flocculation and sedimentation of ungrazed diatom frustules formed during discrete bloom events ecological interpretation of diatomite laminae suggests that many were effectively self sedimenting i e the production of gelatinous exudates by phytoplankton facilitated their aggregation and rapid sedimentation the results indicate that lamination style preserves meaningful ocean climate data concerning episodicity heterogeneity and export efficiency of biologically mediated sedimentary flux in upwelling dominated coastal ecosystems

multiple monsoon controlled breakdown of oxygen minimum conditions during the past 30 000 years documented in laminated sediments off pakistan abstract late holocene laminated sediments from a core transect centred in the oxygen minimum zone omz impinging at the continental slope off pakistan indicate stable oxygen minimum conditions for the past 7000 calendar years high sw monsoon controlled biological productivity and enhanced organic matter preservation during this period is reflected in high contents of total organic carbon toc and redox sensitive elements ni v as well as by a low diversity high abundance benthic foraminiferal buliminacea association and high abundance of the planktonic species globigerina bulloides indicative of upwelling conditions surface water productivity was strongest during sw monsoon maxima stable omz conditions reflected by laminated sediments were found also during warm interstadial events preboreal bolling allerod and dansgaard oeschger events as well as during peak glacial times 17 22 5 ka all ages in calendar years sediment mass accumulation rates were at a maximum during the preboreal and younger dryas periods due to strong riverine input and mobilisation of fine grained sediment coinciding with rapid deglacial sea level rise whereas eolian input generally decreased from glacial to interglacial times in contrast the occurrence of bioturbated intervals from 7 to 10 5 ka early holocene in the younger dryas 11 7 13 ka from 15 to 17 ka heinrich event 1 and from 22 5 to 25 ka heinrich event 2 suggests completely different conditions of oxygen rich bottom waters extremely low mass and organic carbon accumulation rates a high diversity benthic fauna all indicating lowered surface water productivity during these intervals the omz was very poorly developed or absent and a sharp fall of the aragonite compensation depth favoured the preservation of pteropods the abundance of lithogenic proxies suggests aridity and wind transport by northwesterly or northeasterly winds during these periods coinciding with the north atlantic heinrich events and dust peaks in the tibetan loess records the correlation of the monsoon driven omz variability in the arabian sea with the rapid climatic fluctuations in the high northern latitudes suggests a close coupling between the climates of the high and low latitudes at a global scale

abrupt climate induced changes in carbonate burial in the arabian sea causes and consequences we present high resolution records of aragonite contents and pteropods abundance in two sediment cores sk 17 and md 76 131 within the oxygen minimum zone omz of the eastern arabian sea we show large increases in aragonite contents during glacial and particularly during stadials heinrich events using aragonite content pteropods abundance organic carbon percentage and abundance of fertile species of planktonic foraminifer we demonstrate that aragonite contents in the eastern arabian sea primarily reflects preservation linked to the deepening of aragonite compensation depth acd in the arabian sea we show that these aragonite preservation events correspond with time equivalents of henrich events when arabian sea experienced large declines in monsoon driven productivity and greater penetration of antarctica intermediate water aaiw into the arabian sea thus pteropod preservation in the arabian sea appears to be the result of rapid climate change through atmospheric and oceanic teleconnections we suggest that the role of aragonite carbonate production and burial in margins and the resultant co2 climate feedback to rapid climate changes remains poorly constrained

persistent solar influence on north atlantic climate during the holocene surface winds and surface ocean hydrography in the subpolar north atlantic appear to have been influenced by variations in solar output through the entire holocene the evidence comes from a close correlation between inferred changes in production rates of the cosmogenic nuclides carbon 14 and beryllium 10 and centennial to millennial time scale changes in proxies of drift ice measured in deep sea sediment cores a solar forcing mechanism therefore may underlie at least the holocene segment of the north atlantic9s 1500 year cycle the surface hydrographic changes may have affected production of north atlantic deep water potentially providing an additional mechanism for amplifying the solar signals and transmitting them globally

sedimentary nitrogen isotopic ratio as a recorder for surface ocean nitrate utilization in two contrasting regions of the ocean the equatorial pacific and the southern ocean the 15n of core top sediments were strongly related to no3 in surface waters with distance from the equator in the equatorial pacific 15n increased from 7 to 16 as no3 decreased from 8 m to 0 1 m going from 60 to 30 s in the se indian ocean core top 15n increased from 5 to 11 as surface no3 decreased from 25 m to 0 1 m these results are strong evidence that sedimentary 15n in these regions is recording the increasing isotopic enrichment of near surface no3 with its depletion by phytoplankton in the case of the equatorial pacific 15n values for sinking particles collected at 150 m matched well the core top sediment values demonstrating little diagenetic alteration of the near surface generated isotopic signal these equatorial pacific data sets have variations with near surface no3 consistent with rayleigh fractionation kinetics for a fractionation factor u of 2 5 this value is substantially lower than previously found for temperate or polar regions perhaps as a result of differences in phytoplankton species assemblage or growth condition in the southern ocean south of the polar front comparison of 15n values for opal rich sediments south and sinking particles indicates an apparent 5 diagenetic enrichment relative to the surface generated signal that requires further investigation this exception aside our observations show that the surface water relationship of increasing 15n with increasing no3 depletion is generally transmitted to and preserved in the sediments an important requirement for further development and application of this important paleoceanographic tool

geochemical evidence for abrupt changes in relative strength of the arabian monsoons during a stadial interstadial climate transition the occurrence and propagation of abrupt climate change between the high and low latitudes has become an important focus of paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic research the causes of abrupt change have significant implications for understanding future manifestations of similar forcings under late holocene anthropocene boundary conditions of particular interest are signals indicative of sub millennial scale climate change in the sub tropics of similar magnitude and frequency to those recorded in greenland ice cores earlier research in the arabian sea has highlighted the sensitivity of sedimentary organic carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements for recording the state of the sw monsoon and associated arabian sea oxygen minimum zone in this study we exploit the unprecedented fidelity of the sedimentary 15n record to identify a 20 cm interval at odp site 723 containing a stadial inter stadial interval between 43 42 kyr bp we employ sedimentary nitrogen isotopes chlorin pigment and alkenone abundances major and minor element analyses of highly resolved 2 mm 10 yr samples across this interval to compare a comprehensive multi proxy data set to understand a the processes contributing to the 15n signal in the longer records of denitrification and b the associated climatic events especially the relative intensity of summer and winter monsoons at these times a lack of evidence for bioturbation in excess of our 2 mm sampling resolution facilitates decadal scale oceanographic and climatic reconstructions using a four component flux dilution model we show that the deposition of carbonate decreased in parallel with an increase in total organic matter flux from stadial to inter stadial time this interval is also marked by a significant drop in lithogenic dust accumulation analogous to a similar decrease noted during deglaciation in the western arabian sea combined with alkenone u37k derived estimates for sea surface temperature sst we conclude that the climatological shift from stadial to inter stadial conditions at low latitudes was characterized by repeated switches in mean monsoon state approximately every 200 yr the winter monsoon was the dominant mode during maximum stadial conditions conversely the summer monsoon was dominant during maximum interstadial like conditions however each interval was separated by a distinct inter monsoon mode indicated by a higher continental dust flux but warmer sst proxy records for changing bottom water oxygenation show near identical results down to the mm scale but hint at increased export production leading the onset of anoxia during the stadial inter stadial transition the coherence of all sedimentary signals depicts a wholesale reorganization of the arabian sea climate and marine ecosystem over approximately 200 years a period that may be associated with monsoon modulation by small oscillations in solar irradiance

a solar irradiance trigger for millennial scale abrupt changes in the southwest monsoon 1 marine sedimentary records of the last glacial from tropical monsoon latitudes indicate climate fluctuations comparable to rapid changes in 18o recorded in greenland synchronizing two high resolution sedimentary records from the oman and pakistan margins we resolve millennial scale reversals in sea surface temperature sst gradient sst across the arabian sea which directly correspond with the majority of dansgaard oeschger d o events for the last 65 kyr the relative amplitude of individual monsoon and d o events appears comparable suggesting coupled and at least hemispheric forcing to explore this quasi cyclic forcing we compare alkenone based geologic data with modern satellite derived sst estimates between sites interstadial conditions fall within the range of monsoons during the holocene but stadial conditions have no analogs following published associations between eurasian winter snow cover ewsc and monsoon rainfall and el nino southern oscillation enso events and anomalous ewsc we find a good correlation between the southern oscillation index soi and arabian sea sst throughout the modern data set an apparent 11 year cyclicity in the soi reveals an association between the monsoon soi and solar output variability the soi primarily tracks solar total irradiance but the soi monsoon linkage becomes nonlinear during excursions of the soi associated with el nino events strong el ninos coincide precisely with minimum solar irradiance during the solar cycle which we attribute to threshold behavior in tropical pacific ssts and associated trade wind strength we propose that both short term interannual decadal and long term centennial millennial changes in solar output are consistent with records of enso variability monsoon intensity and d o event timing

teleconnections between the subtropical monsoons and high latitude climates during the last deglaciation the major deglacial intensification of the southwest monsoon occurred at 11 450 150 calendar years before present synchronous with a major climate transition as recorded in greenland ice an earlier event of monsoon intensification at 16 000 150 calendar years before present occurred at the end of heinrich layer 1 in the atlantic and parallels the initial rise in global atmospheric methane concentrations and the first abrupt climate changes in the antarctic thus the evolution of the monsoonal and high latitude climates show teleconnections but hemispheric asymmetries superimposed on abrupt events the monsoonal climate shows high frequency variability of 1785 1450 and 1150 year oscillations and abrupt climate change seems to occur when at least two of these oscillations are in phase

interhemispheric synchrony of the last deglaciation inferred from alkenone palaeothermometry the relative timings of the last deglacial warming in the southern and northern hemispheres are not well constrained but are a crucial component in understanding the mechanisms of deglaciation1 a clearer picture of the degree of interhemispheric synchrony has been obscured by a dearth of high resolution temperature records that can be tied to the absolute calendar timescale moreover the quantification of tropical temperatures during the last glacial cycle is controversial2 8 here we apply the alkenone method of sea surface temperature reconstruction9 10 to several high resolution sediment cores recovered from the tropical indian ocean between 20 n and 20 s the inferred initial sea surface temperature warming 15 000 calendar years ago at 20 s is in phase with northern hemisphere sea this study and air11 temperature changes but lags antarctic warming12 14 by several millennia this finding along with the results of recent modelling studies15 16 provides strong support for the idea that changes in the ocean s global thermohaline circulation were not the only cause of interhemispheric climate teleconnection during the last deglaciation

beryllium 10 in the greenland ice core project ice core at summit greenland concentrations of the cosmogenic isotope 10be have been measured in more than 1350 samples from the greenland ice core project grip ice core drilled at summit greenland although a dust associated component of 10be retained by 0 45 m filters in some of the samples complicates the interpretations the results confirm that the first order origin of 10be concentration variations is changes in precipitation rate associated with different climate regimes this effect is seen not only between glacial and interglacial periods but also during the shorter dansgaard oeschger interstadials by contrast the 10be data do not support the interpretation of rapidly varying accumulation i e climate during the last interglacial they can however be used to help place limits on the origin of the ice in these events after taking into account variable snow accumulation effects variations in the 10be flux are observed probably caused by solar and geomagnetic modulation but possibly also by primary cosmic ray variations the most dramatic is a 10be peak 40 000 years ago similar to that found in the vostok ice core thus permitting a very precise correlation between climate records from arctic and antarctic ice cores the 36cl 10be ratio considering either total or only ice associated 10be shows significant variability over the whole core depth thus confirming the difficulty in using this parameter for dating ice cores

strong coherence between solar variability and the monsoon in oman between 9 and 6 kyr ago variations in the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth are thought to influence climate but the extent of this influence on timescales of millennia to decades is unclear a number of climate records show correlations between solar cycles and climate1 but the absolute changes in solar intensity over the range of decades to millennia are small2 and the influence of solar flux on climate is not well established the formation of stalagmites in northern oman has recorded past northward shifts of the intertropical convergence zone3 whose northward migration stops near the southern shoreline of arabia in the present climate4 here we present a high resolution record of oxygen isotope variations for the period from 9 6 to 6 1 kyr before present in a th u dated stalagmite from oman the 18o record from the stalagmite which serves as a proxy for variations in the tropical circulation and monsoon rainfall allows us to make a direct comparison of the 18o record with the 14c record from tree rings5 which largely reflects changes in solar activity6 7 the excellent correlation between the two records suggests that one of the primary controls on centennial to decadal scale changes in tropical rainfall and monsoon intensity during this time are variations in solar radiation

late pleistocene variability of arabian sea summer monsoon winds and continental aridity eolian records from the lithogenic component of deep sea sediments the modern indian ocean summer monsoon is driven by differential heating between the asian continent and the indian ocean to the south this differential heating produces a strong pressure gradient which drives southwest monsoon winds during june july and august satellite and meteorological observations aerosol measurements sediment trap studies and mineralogical studies indicate an atmospheric mode of transport for modern lithogenic sediments in the northwest arabian sea analyses of lithogenic grain size and mass accumulation rate mar records from the owen ridge indicate that eolian transport has been the primary mode of transport for the past 370 kyr visual inspection shows that the mar record is positively correlated with global ice volume as indicated by the marine 18o record in contrast the grain size record varies at a much higher frequency showing little correlation to either the mar or the 18o records spectral analyses confirm these relationships indicating that the lithogenic grain size and mar records are coherent only over the precession band whereby the grain size leads the mar by 124 8 kyr we conclude that an eolian transport mechanism is the only mechanism that allows for this phase difference and at the same time is supported by comparison of the grain size and mar with independent eolian records we use lithogenic grain size as a paleoclimatic indicator of summer monsoon wind strength and lithogenic mar as a paleoclimatic indicator of source area aridity these interpretations are supported by comparison of the lithogenic records to independent indicators of wind strength globigerina bulloides upwelling record and aridity a loess record from central china such comparisons indicate high coherence and zero phase relationships our work supports the findings of previous studies which have documented the link between monsoon strength and the earth s axial precession cycles both the lithogenic mar and the grain size records have high coherency with precessional insolation maximum lithogenic mar source area aridity is in phase with 18o global ice volume and leads maximum precessional insolation by 88 6 kyr we attribute this lead to the influence of glacial conditions on the aridity and therefore the deflation potential of the source areas maximum lithogenic grain size summer monsoon wind strength lags maximum precession by 148 9 kyr we attribute this lag both to the influence of global and or local ice volume and to the availability of latent heat from the southern hemisphere indian ocean the two of which combine to determine the strength of the indian ocean monsoon

diatom response to the last glacial interglacial transition in the ioannina basin northwest greece implications for mediterranean palaeoclimate reconstruction uncertainty as to the pattern of lateglacial and early holocene climate change in the western balkans and greece has persisted despite extensive investigation of the ioannina i 284 lake sediment sequence northwest greece here we present a new diatom record from i 284 for this time period after dominance by eurytopic small fragilariales the lateglacial interstadial ca 14 9 12 7 cal kyr bp is marked clearly by a relative increase in planktonic cyclotella ocellata a return to small fragilariales from ca 12 7 to 11 6 cal kyr bp approximately coincides with the younger dryas chronozone it is followed by a major transition to dominance by cyclotella spp at the pleistocene holocene boundary we interpret these shifts as a response to both lake level and productivity change induced by shifts in effective moisture and temperature demonstrating that the diatom record provides the first strong evidence for a younger dryas event in northwest greece and for both warming and wetting during the lateglacial interstadial and early holocene we also present clear evidence for an abrupt phase of catchment instability during the early holocene in this case we must await the results of further research to test whether it was driven by climatic or tectonic forcing

comparative molecular biomarker assessment of phytoplankton paleoproductivity for the last 160 kyr off cap blanc nw africa abstract we report high resolution molecular abundance data for alkenones dinosterol long chain diols and n alkanols from odp site 658 20 45 n 18 35 w 2263 m water depth these data are compared with previously reported data for toc chlorins opal and long chain n alkanes the contents and mass accumulation rates mars of chlorins are used as total phytoplankton productivity proxies while the contents and mars of opal dinosterol alkenones and diols are used as productivity proxies for diatoms dinoflagellates haptophytes and eustigmatophytes diatoms respectively five high productivity intervals hpis are identified two at the glacial interglacial transition boundaries of 132 122 and 15 8 ka two within the warmer periods of mis 3 50 30 ka and the late holocene 4 0 ka and one within the glacial period of mis 4 67 60 ka productivity was lowest during both the penultimate glacial maximum of mis 6 150 140 ka and the last glacial maximum 22 18 ka as revealed by both the total phytoplankton and individual phytoplankton productivity indicators phytoplankton community structure changed significantly over the last 160 kyr the termination i ii hpis were characterized by higher opal content possibly reflecting increased diatom contributions to total productivity eustigmatophyte diatom and haptophyte contributions were higher during mis 5 but decreased toward the holocene dinosterol revealed an opposite trend with the highest contribution in the holocene we ascribe such changes in phytoplankton communities to the effects brought about by the varying amounts and nature of nutrient inputs contributed regionally by eolian dusts river influxes ocean currents and upwelling water masses

temporal variability in the northern arabian sea oxygen minimum zone omz during the last 225 000 years the northern arabian sea is one of the few regions in the open ocean where thermocline water is severely depleted in oxygen the intensity of this oxygen minimum zone omz has been reconstructed over the past 225 000 years using proxies for surface water productivity water column denitrification winter mixing and the aragonite compensation depth acd changes in omz intensity occurred on orbital and suborbital timescales lowest o2 levels correlate with productivity maxima and shallow winter mixing precession related productivity maxima lag early summer insolation maxima by 6 kyr which we attribute to a prolonged summer monsoon season related to higher insolation at the end of the summer periods with a weakened or even non existent omz are characterized by low productivity conditions and deep winter mixing attributed to strong and cold winter monsoonal winds the timing of deep winter mixing events corresponds with that of periods of climatic cooling in the north atlantic region

comparison of oxygen isotope records from the gisp2 and grip greenland ice cores recent results1 2 from the greenland ice core project grip summit ice core suggest that the climate in greenland has been remarkably stable during the holocene but was extremely unstable for the time period represented by the rest of the core spanning the last two glaciations and the intervening eemian inter glacial here we present the complete oxygen isotope record for the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 core drilled 28 km west of the grip core we observe large rapid climate fluctuations throughout the last glacial period which closely match those reported for the grip core however in the bottom 10 of the cores spanning the eemian interglacial and the previous glacia tion there are significant differences between the two records it is possible that ice flow may have altered the chronological sequences of the stratigraphy for the bottom part of one or both of the cores considerable further work will be necessary to evaluate the likelihood of this and the extent to which it will still be possible to extract meaningful climate information from the lowest sections of the cores

14c activity and global carbon cycle changes over the past 50 000 years a series of 14c measurements in ocean drilling program cores from the tropical cariaco basin which have been correlated to the annual layer counted chronology for the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core provides a high resolution calibration of the radiocarbon time scale back to 50 000 years before the present independent radiometric dating of events correlated to gisp2 suggests that the calibration is accurate reconstructed 14c activities varied substantially during the last glacial period including sharp peaks synchronous with the laschamp and mono lake geomagnetic field intensity minimal and cosmogenic nuclide peaks in ice cores and marine sediments simulations with a geochemical box model suggest that much of the variability can be explained by geomagnetically modulated changes in 14c production rate together with plausible changes in deep ocean ventilation and the global carbon cycle during glaciation

a 300 kyr record of upwelling off oman during the late quaternary evidence of the asian southwest monsoon in the northwest arabian sea upwelling occurs each summer driven by the strong sw monsoon winds upwelling results in high biological productivity and a distinctive assemblage of plankton species in the surface waters off oman that are preserved in the sediments along the oman continental margin creating a geologic record of monsoon driven upwelling sediments recovered from the oman continental margin during ocean drilling program leg 117 provide an opportunity to examine how upwelling has varied during the late quaternary spanning a longer interval than piston cores recovered prior to the odp cruise variations in foraminifer shell accumulation and in the relative abundance of globigerina bulloides indicate dominant cycles of variation at 1 100 kyr the dominant frequency of glacial interglacial variations and at 1 23 kyr the frequency of precessionally driven cycles in seasonal insolation the strongest monsoon winds indicated by increased upwelling occurred during interglacial times when perihelion was aligned with the summer solstice an orbital change that increased the insolation received during summer in the northern hemisphere during glacial times upwelling was reduced and although the precessional cycles were still present their amplitude was smaller at both frequencies the upwelling cycles are in phase with minimum ice volume evidence that glacial interglacial climate changes also include changes to the climate system that influence the low latitude monsoon we attribute the decrease in the monsoon winds observed during glacial times to changes in bare land albedo over asia and or to changes in the areal extent and seasonal cycle in asian snow cover that decrease the summer land sea temperature contrast other mechanisms may also be involved these new upwelling time series differ substantially from previous results however the previous work relied on cores located farther offshore where upwelling is less intense and other physical mechanisms become important our results support the observations derived from atmospheric general circulation models of the atmosphere that indicate that both glacial boundary conditions and the strength of summer insolation are important variables contributing to cycles in the monsoon winds during the late quaternary

distributions of branched gdgts in soils and lake sediments from western uganda implications for a lacustrine paleothermometer bacterially produced branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers gdgts are ubiquitous in soils and lake sediments and can potentially be used to reconstruct past temperatures in lakes however it is still unclear if these compounds are derived from eroded soils or if they are produced in situ to better understand environmental controls on the distributions of these compounds and the sources of branched gdgts to lake sediments we compare branched gdgt distributions and concentrations in lake sediments and catchment soils within a 3600 m altitudinal transect in western uganda reconstructed mean annual air temperature maat determined from the degree of methylation mbt and cyclisation cbt of branched gdgts in soils decreases with increasing altitude as is expected from the air temperature gradient in our transect however we observe significant offsets between observed and reconstructed temperatures in soils from wet high elevation soils but not in most dry low elevation soils branched gdgt distributions differ significantly between lake sediments and soils at all elevations with greater differences at low elevations than at high elevations these data support previous hypotheses that branched gdgts are produced in situ in lakes and suggest that the abundance of water in soil environments may play a role in controlling the distribution of branched gdgts while branched gdgts in lacustrine sediments can be used to reconstruct temporal temperature variations in lakes we urge caution in utilizing this proxy in lacustrine systems with high soil loadings especially if there is evidence of changing clastic fluxes through time

sr nd isotopic evidence of terrigenous flux variations in the bay of bengal implications of monsoons during the last 34 000 years 1 sr and nd isotopic compositions of a sediment core from the bay of bengal are used to constrain the provenance and transport pathways of their terrigenous component during the 3 to 34 14c kyr bp the results clearly demonstrate a distinctly different source for detrital fluxes on the ninetyeast ridge from that of distal and western fan sediments there is a systematic pattern of climate related variability in 87sr 86sr and nd o values at the studied location pulses of low 87sr 86sr higher radiogenic nd and high silt content occurring at 5 7 kyr intervals suggest significant changes in the detrital source increased supply of irrawaddy derived sediments appears to be the dominant source for these pulses our results support the hypothesis that rapid cold events of north atlantic heinrich events are characterized by the intensified northeast monsoon

depth and seasonality of alkenone production along the california margin inferred from a core top transect alkenone unsaturation indices uk 37 of marine sediment could prove particularly useful on organic rich continental margins where carbonate dissolution hampers the use of other paleoclimatic proxies mccaffrey et al 1990 kennedy and brassell 1992 forty core top samples of recent sediment from a latitudinal transect 23 40 n along the california margin yield uk 37 values that correlate linearly with modern mean annual sea surface temperatures ssts in the range of 12 23 c reproducibility of the unsaturation value in closely spaced cores is near analytical error uk 37 data define a relationship to temperature nearly identical to the prahl et al 1988 laboratory cultures of emiliania huxleyi the close agreement is particularly significant in light of the nannofossil composition of the sediments where the abundance of the coccolith taxon gephyrocapsa oceanica known to synthesize alkenones equals or exceeds that of e huxleyi comparison with seasonal temperature variations at different depths indicates that little if any alkenone production occurs at depths 30 m along the continental margin water depths 2 km sediments in more pelagic locations exhibit small but consistent biases toward winter and or subsurface production similar to previously reported sediment trap and core top data from the oregon margin prahl et al 1993 doose et al 1997

particulate organic carbon fluxes compilation of results from the 1995 us jgofs arabian sea process study by the arabian sea carbon flux group abstract organic carbon fluxes in the arabian sea were measured as a function of depth season and distance from the coast of oman we present here a compilation of measurements of primary production water column export flux and sediment accumulation of organic carbon over a full annual monsoon cycle on a 1500 km transect from the coast of oman toward the central arabian sea this represents an integration of measurements spanning one day primary production to 1000 yr sediments and gives a broad overview of organic carbon removal and remineralization in the highly productive seasonally varying region of the northern indian ocean organic carbon fluxes decreased from the surface to the sediments by a factor of 500 10 000 with the largest rates of change in the upper ocean and at the sediment seawater interface organic carbon fluxes generally decreased with distance offshore with the largest gradient between surface and seafloor being at the offshore station sediment accumulation rates of organic carbon differed by a factor of 40 between nearshore and offshore while primary productivity varied only by a factor of 2 the decrease in carbon flux with depth that occurs between the deepest traps and the sediment becomes a greater proportion of the total loss with increasing distance from shore thus the influence of processes at the sediment water interface on the proportion of primary productivity preserved in the sediment increases offshore relative to upper water column processes carbon fluxes changed greatly with season with highest fluxes during the southwest monsoon export fluxes varied more with season than primary productivity or mid water fluxes

chemical characterization of ambient aerosol collected during the southwest monsoon and intermonsoon seasons over the arabian sea labile fe ii and other trace metals atmospheric deposition of iron fe to certain regions of the oceans is an important nutrient source of fe to the biota and the ability of the biota to uptake fe is dependent on the speciation of the fe therefore understanding the speciation of fe in the atmosphere is critical to understanding the role of fe as a nutrient source in surface ocean waters labile ferrous iron fe ii concentrations as well as total concentrations for fe and other important trace metals cations and anions were determined over the arabian sea for two nonconsecutive months during 1995 ambient aerosol samples were collected during the indian ocean intermonsoon and southwest monsoon seasons over the arabian sea sampling took place aboard the german research vessel meteor in the months of may leg m32 3 intermonsoon and july august leg m32 5 southwest monsoon both cruise tracks followed the 65th east meridian traveling for 30 days each from north to south during leg m32 3 and from south to north during leg m32 5 a high volume dichotomous virtual impactor with an aerodynamic cutoff size of 3 m was used to collect the fine and coarse aerosol fractions for metal analysis a low volume collector was used to collect aerosol samples for anion and cation analysis the analysis for labile fe ii was done immediately after sample collection to minimize any possible fe redox reactions which might occur during sample storage the analytical procedure involved filter extraction in a formate formic acid buffered solution at ph 4 2 followed by colorimetric quantification of soluble fe ii metals anions and cations were analyzed after the cruise total atmospheric aqueous labile fe ii concentrations during the intermonsoon were between 4 75 and 80 was present in the fine fraction 3 0 m during the southwest monsoon atmospheric aqueous labile fe ii concentrations were consistently below the detection limit 0 34 to 0 089 ng m 3 depending on the volume of air sampled air mass back trajectories 5 day three dimensional showed that air masses sampled during the southwest monsoon had advected over the open indian ocean while air masses sampled during the intermonsoon had advected over northeast africa the saudi arabian peninsula and southern asia these calculations were consistent with the results of the statistical analysis performed on the data set which showed that the variance due to crustal species during the intermonsoon samples was greater than the variance due to crustal species during the southwest monsoon the factor scores for the crustal components were also greater when the back trajectories had advected over the nearby continental masses principal component analysis was also performed with the intermonsoon samples where aqueous labile fe ii was above the detection limit aqueous labile fe ii did not correlate well with other species indicating possible atmospheric processing of the iron during advection

nitrogen isotope and chlorin paleoproductivity records from the northern south china sea remote vs local forcing of millennial and orbital scale variability abstract variations in nitrogen isotopic composition 15n and total chlorin accumulation rate ar are employed as proxies to reconstruct oceanic nitrate inventory the balance between denitrification and n fixation and paleoproductivity in a rapidly accumulating sediment drift deposit beneath the western pacific warm pool for the last 145 kyr subsurface and deep waters of the northern south china sea scs are sourced from the shallow kuroshio current kc and pacific intermediate water respectively their relative importance in determining sedimentary 15n and paleoproductivity have been altered by changes in equatorial circulation summer and winter monsoon intensity and relative sea level the location and basin configuration of the marginal scs renders it especially sensitive to such changes assuming complete annual nitrate utilization low 15n values during glacial stages are interpreted as a reflection of reduced remote denitrification in the eastern tropical north pacific etnp source waters while much of marine isotope stage mis 3 and the last interglacial were characterized by high denitrification however intervals of anomalously low 15n values are interpreted as reflecting the contribution from regional n fixation in west pacific surface waters transmitted to the site by the shallow kc unusually the holocene is characterized by declining 15n values and an inverse correlation with organic matter content since ca 8 2 ka millennial scale variations during mis 3 indicate higher frequency variations in both etnp denitrification and local n fixation which may be coherent with a hemispheric response to dansgaard oeschger events recorded at high latitudes for much of the last 145 kyr paleoproductivity was decoupled from 15n and instead seems to reflect the extent of the global nitrate inventory stimulated by elevated dust fertilization and regional mixed layer deepening associated with the relative intensity of the se asian winter monsoon despite evaluation of possible conflicting influences on the record of each proxy we interpret our data as clear evidence of glacial interglacial changes in marine nutrient inventory across the whole of the north pacific with a corresponding biogeochemical response and important implications for global co2 drawdown via an invigorated biological pump the relative importance of local regional and global contributions to our records appears to be strongly modulated by relative sea level controlling trans and extra basinal circulation in the scs

evidence for solar forcing on the indian monsoon during the last millennium abstract solar influence on the intensity of the indian monsoon is demonstrated using a sediment core from the eastern arabian sea dating back to 1200 yr through pattern matching as well as spectral analysis of proxy records of monsoon and solar activity the intensity of the indian monsoon is found to have decreased during periods of solar minima during the last millennium periodicities of 200 20 105 15 and 60 10 yr are observed in the proxy records coinciding with those known for solar cycles the 60 yr periodicity observed in the instrumental rainfall data appears to be of solar origin and supports the hypothesis of solar control on the indian monsoon on a multi decadal time scale evidence for the presence of a coupled atmospheric forcing for the indian and east african monsoons on a centennial time scale is also seen

beach steepness effects on nonlinear infragravity wave interactions a numerical study the numerical model swash is used to investigate nonlinear energy transfers between waves for a diverse set of beach profiles and wave conditions with a specific focus on infragravity waves we use bispectral analysis to study the nonlinear triad interactions and estimate energy transfers to determine energy flows within the spectra the energy transfers are divided into four types of triad interactions with triads including either one two or three infragravity frequency components and triad interactions solely between sea swell wave frequencies the swash model is validated with a high resolution laboratory data set on a gently sloping beach which shows that swash is capable of modeling the detailed nonlinear interactions from the simulations we observe that especially the beach slope affects nonlinear infragravity wave interactions on a low sloping beach infragravity wave energy dominates the water motion close to shore here infragravity infragravity interactions dominate and generate higher harmonics that lead to the steepening of the infragravity wave and eventually breaking causing large infragravity energy dissipation on the contrary on a steep sloping beach sea swell wave energy dominates the water motion everywhere here infragravity frequencies interact with the spectral peak and spread energy to a wide range of higher frequencies with relatively less infragravity energy dissipation although both beach types have different nonlinear interaction patterns during infragravity wave dissipation the amount of infragravity wave reflection can be estimated by a single parameter the normalized bed slope

climatically sensitive eolian and hemipelagic deposition in the cariaco basin venezuela over the past 578 000 years results from al ti and k al al ti and k al ratios in bulk sediment are used to interpret wind blown and hemipelagic sources of deposition to a 578 kyr record in the cariaco basin venezuela ocean drilling program site 1002 graphical and cross spectral analyses indicate that these ratios vary extremely closely with planktonic foraminiferal 18o with both ratios being significantly higher during interglacials and lower during glacials k al indicates that during glacials the lower sea level that results in relative basin isolation increases the relative proportion of kaolinite derived from local rivers draining the relatively humid venezuelan margin al ti decreases during glacials suggesting greater proportions of eolian rutile sourced from the northern sahara due to increased wind strength and or aridity this interpretation is consistent with previous studies of the chemistry and mineralogy of saharan derived eolian matter in the caribbean and with a mass balance determining the effect of changes in eolian rutile accumulation on the bulk sedimentary al ti ratio

abrupt changes in the asian southwest monsoon during the holocene and their links to the north atlantic ocean during the last ice age the indian ocean southwest monsoon exhibited abrupt changes that were closely correlated with millennial scale climate events in the north atlantic region1 2 3 suggesting a mechanistic link in the holocene epoch which had a more stable climate the amplitude of abrupt changes in north atlantic climate was much smaller and it has been unclear whether these changes are related to monsoon variability here we present a continuous record of centennial scale monsoon variability throughout the holocene from rapidly accumulating and minimally bioturbated sediments in the anoxic arabian sea our monsoon proxy record reveals several intervals of weak summer monsoon that coincide with cold periods documented in the north atlantic region4 including the most recent climate changes from the medieval warm period to the little ice age and then to the present we therefore suggest that the link between north atlantic climate and the asian monsoon is a persistent aspect of global climate

variations of oxygen minimum and primary productivity recorded in sediments of the arabian sea abstract two deep sea sediment cores from the northeastern and the southeastern arabian sea were studied in order to reconstruct the palaeoenvironments of the past glacial cycles core 136kl was recovered from the high productivity area off pakistan within the modern oxygen minimum zone omz by contrast modern primary productivity at the site of md900963 close to maldives is moderate and bottom waters are today well oxygenated for both cores we reconstructed the changes in palaeoproductivity using a set of biomarkers alkenones dinosterol and brassicasterol the main result is that primary productivity is enhanced during glacial stages and lowered during interstadials the proxies associated with productivity show a 23 kyr cyclicity corresponding to the precession related insolation cycle palaeoredox conditions were studied in both cores using a new organic geochemical parameter c35 c31 n alkane ratio developed by analysing surface sediments from a transect across the omz off pakistan the value of this ratio in core 136kl shows many variations during the last 65 kyr indicating that the omz was not stable during this time it disappeared completely during heinrich and the younger dryas events pointing to a connection between global oceanic circulation and the stability of the omz the c35 c31 ratio determined in sediments of core md900963 shows that bottom waters remained rather well oxygenated over the last 330 kyr which is confirmed by comparison with authigenic metal concentrations in the same sediments a zonally averaged circulation biogeochemical ocean model was used to explore how the intermediate indian ocean responds to a freshwater flux anomaly at the surface of the north atlantic as suggested by the geochemical time series both the abundance of southern ocean water and the oxygen concentration are significantly increased in response to this freshwater perturbation

impact of glacial interglacial sea level change on the ocean nitrogen cycle the continental shelves are the most biologically dynamic regions of the ocean and they are extensive worldwide especially in the western north pacific their area has varied dramatically over the glacial interglacial cycles of the last million years but the effects of this variation on ocean biological and chemical processes remain poorly understood conversion of nitrate to n2 by denitrification in sediments accounts for half or more of the removal of biologically available nitrogen fixed n from the ocean the emergence of continental shelves during ice ages and their flooding during interglacials have been hypothesized to drive changes in sedimentary denitrification denitrification leads to the occurrence of phosphorus bearing n depleted surface waters which encourages n2 fixation the dominant n input to the ocean an 860 000 y record of foraminifera shell bound n isotopes from the south china sea indicates that n2 fixation covaried with sea level the n2 fixation changes are best explained as a response to changes in regional excess phosphorus supply due to sea level driven variations in shallow sediment denitrification associated with the cyclic drowning and emergence of the continental shelves this hypothesis is consistent with a glacial ocean that hosted globally lower rates of fixed n input and loss and a longer residence time for oceanic fixed n a sluggish ocean n budget during ice ages in addition this work provides a clear sign of sea level driven glacial interglacial oscillations in biogeochemical fluxes at and near the ocean margins with implications for coastal organisms and ecosystems

16 c rapid temperature variation in central greenland 70 000 years ago variations in the29n2 28n2 ratio of air bubbles trapped in polar ice cores and their relation to variations of the 18o 16o of the ice allow past surface temperature variations and ice age gas age differences to be determined high resolution measurements of29n2 28n2 in dansgaard oeschger event 19 around 70 000 years before the present in ice from central greenland show that at the beginning of the event the ice age gas age difference was 1090 100 years with the use of a combined firn densification temperature and gas diffusion model the 18oice temperature coefficient was determined to be 0 42 0 05 per mil per kelvin this coefficient implies a mean surface temperature change of 16 0 kelvin between 14 3 and 18 1 kelvin which differs substantially from values derived from borehole temperatures and modern spatial 18oice surface temperature correlations

organic matter preservation on the pakistan continental margin as revealed by biomarker geochemistry in order to assess whether the oxygen minimum zone omz in the arabian sea has an eaect on the preservation and composition of organic matter in surface sediments we investigated samples from three diaerent transects on the pakistan continental margin across the omz in addition to determining the total amount of organic carbon toc we analyzed the extractable lipids by gas chromatography combined gas chromatography mass spectrometry and compound specific stable carbon isotope measurements the extractable lipids are dominated by marine organic matter as indicated by the abundance of lipids typical of marine biota and by the bulk and molecular isotopic composition sediments from within the omz are enriched in organic carbon and in several extractable lipids i e phytol n alcohols total sterols n c35 alkane relative to stations above and below this zone other lipid concentrations such as those of total n fatty acids and total n alkanes fail to show any relation to the omz only a weak correlation of toc with mineral surface area was found in sediments deposited within the omz in contrast sediments from outside the omz do not show any relationship between toc and surface area among the extractable lipids only the n alkane concentration is highly correlated with surface area in sediments from the hab and makran transects in sediments from outside the omz the phytol and sterol concentrations are also weakly correlated with mineral surface area the depositional environment of the indus fan oaers the best conditions for an enhanced preservation of organic matter the omz together with the undisturbed sedimentation at moderate rates seems to be mainly responsible for the high toc values in this area overall the type of organic matter and its lability toward oxic degradation the mineral surface area the mineral composition and possibly the secondary productivity by sedimentary bacteria also appear to have an influence on organic matter accumulation and composition 2000 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

large fluctuations of dissolved oxygen in the indian and pacific oceans during dansgaard oeschger oscillations caused by variations of north atlantic deep water subduction a s and s h were supported by the paleoclimate program of the national science foundation as part of the paleovar project atm 0602395

surface and deep water changes in the northeast indian ocean during the last 60 ka inferred from carbon and oxygen isotopes of planktonic and benthic foraminifera abstract stable carbon and oxygen isotopic records of planktonic globigerinoides ruber and benthic foraminifera mostly cibicidoides wuellerstorfi from a deep sea core in the northeast indian ocean are used to infer surface and deep water characteristics for the last 60 kyr the gravity core sk 157 14 studied here was retrieved from the ninetyeast ridge 5 11 n 90 05 e at a water depth of 3306 m chronology of the core was established using nine radiocarbon dates and oxygen isotope stratigraphy significant variations in 18o during the last 2 60 kyr bp are suggestive of large changes in monsoonal precipitation over the indian sub continent the last glacial maximum lgm to holocene shift in planktonic foraminifera 18o 1 64 is less than documented earlier from the bay of bengal cores two prominent negative 18o excursions at 8 7 and 20 18 kyr bp are attributed to the sudden influx of freshwater as a result of intensified monsoonal precipitation large fluctuations in 18o of g ruber during the holocene suggest variability in riverine input planktonic 18o values show a combined effect of increased sea surface salinity and decreased sea surface temperature sst during the lgm in contrast the planktonic 13c values are not linked to the glacial to holocene transition comparison of the benthic 18o and 13c time series with those of a pacific core rc13 110 suggests a similar glacial deep water evolution the lgm to holocene 18o shift in benthic foraminifera mostly c wuellerstorfi exceeds the ice volume effect by 0 5 indicating a glacial deep water cooling of 2 c assuming no salinity change variations in the distribution of 13c in the glacial northeast indian ocean neio are most likely the result of deep ocean circulation changes the glacial deep neio 13c characteristics clearly point to reduced north atlantic deep water nadw input consequently the contribution from the southern ocean deep water may have increased resulting in low 13c a positive shift in 13c during the early deglaciation is consistent with other records from this region deglacial 13c fluctuations appear to have been caused by the switch on and off of nadw production

oxygen 18 16 variability in greenland snow and ice with 10 3 to 105 year time resolution the 3 km long greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core presents a 100 000 year detailed oxygen isotope profile covering almost a full glacial interglacial cycle measuranents of isotopic fluctuations in snow frost and atmospheric water vapor samples collected during summer field seasons up to 20 0 are compatible with the large and abrupt 80 160 changes observed in accumulated tim snow pit 15 80 profiles from the gisp2 summit area however show rapid smoothing of the 180 160 signal near the surface beyond about 2 m depth the smoothedi5180 signal is fairly well preserved and can be interpreted in terms of average local weather conditions and climate the longer climate fluctuations also have regional and often global significance in the older part of the record corresponding to marine isotope stages mis 5a to 5d the effect of orbital climate forcing via the 19 and 23 kyr precession cycles and the 41 kyr obliquity cycle is obvious from the end ofmis 5a at about 75 000 years b p till the end of the glacial at the younger dryas preboreal transition at 11 650 years b p the o180 160 record shows frequent rapid switches between intermediate interstadial and low stadial values fourier spectra of the oscillations that are superimposed on the orbitally induced changes contain a strong periodicity at 1 5 kyr a broad peak at 4 0 kyr and additional shorter periods detailed comparison of the gisp2 180 160 record with the vostok antarctica 15d record pacific ocean foraminiferal 180 160 grande pile france tree pollen and insolation indicates that a counterpart to many of the rapid 180 160 fluctuations of gisp2 can be found in the other records and that the gisp2 isotopic changes clearly are the local expression of climate changes of worldwide extent correlation of events on the independent gisp2 and specmap time scales for the interval 10 000 50 000 years b p shows excellent chronometric agreement except possibly for the event labeled 3 1 the glacial to interglacial transition evidently started simultaneously in the arctic and the antarctic but its development and its expression in greenland isotopes was later suppressed by the influence of meltwater especially from the barents sea ice sheet on deep water formation and ocean circulation meltwaters from different ice sheets bordering the north atlantic also influenced ocean circulation during the bolling allerod interstadial complex and the younger dryas and led to a distinct development of european climate and greenland 180 160 values the holocene interval with long term stable mean isotopic values contains several fluauations with periods from years to millennia dominant is a 6 3 year oscillation with amplitude up to 3 to 4 0 periodicities of 11 and 210 years also found in the solar modulated records of the cosmogenic isotopes 1obe and 14c suggest solar processes as the cause of these cycles depression of180 160 values cooling by volcanic eruptions is observed in stacked gisp215 80 records but the effect is small and not likely to trigger major climate changes

high resolution holocene monsoon record from the eastern arabian sea through stable oxygen and carbon analyses of rapidly accumulating sediment cores from the eastern arabian sea we show that the excess of evaporation over precipitation e p steadily appears to have decreased during the last 10 000 to 2000 years most probably due to an increasing trend in the summer monsoon rainfall contrary to the land based paleoclimatic data from this region which indicate onset of aridity around 4000 years ago our results are consistent with the hypothesis that significant spatial variability in the monsoon rainfall observed today was persistent during most of the holocene alternatively the trend can be seen as an adjustment between two phases one between 10 000 and 6000 years ago of increasing precipitation and another between 3500 and 2000 years ago after the arid episode we also report a significant 700 year periodicity similar to that reported recently from the south china sea indicating that the centennial millennial scale response of the indian and chinese monsoons to high latitude forcing may be alike

phosphorus accumulation in marine sediments and the oceanic phosphorus cycle ideas about key factors in the oceanic mass balance of dissolved reactive phosphate have changed substantially i present an integrated overview of these here with an emphasis on evaluating the burial sinks for p and defining areas needing further research the major source of reactive p to the ocean is river input reactive p is delivered to the oceanic sediment water interface primarily in particulate organic matter p scavenged by hydrothermal iron rich oxyhydroxide particles with uptake in proportion to deep water phosphate concentrations represents a substantially smaller flux to the sediment water interface diagenetic transformations are important influences on the form of reactive p burial in marine sediments p burial occurs with organic carbon burial and as p associated with iron rich oxyhydroxide particles and coatings formation of authigenic p rich phases presumably apatite at the expense of organic p and oxide associated p is significant in open ocean marine sediments the authigenic p sink may represent a substantially larger portion of the sedimentary burial than indicated by previous estimates focused on p burial in organic rich continental margin sediments

the toba volcanic event and interstadial stadial climates at the marine isotopic stage 5 to 4 transition in the northern indian ocean abstract the toba volcanic event one of the largest eruptions during the quaternary is documented in marine sediment cores from the northeastern arabian sea on the crest of the murray ridge and along the western indian continental margin we detected distinct concentration spikes and ash layers of rhyolithic volcanic shards near the marine isotope stage 5 4 boundary with the chemical composition of the youngest toba tuff time series of the uk 37 alkenone index planktic foraminiferal species magnetic susceptibility and sediment accumulation rates from this interval show that the toba event occurred between two warm periods lasting a few millennia using toba as an instantaneous stratigraphic marker for correlation between the marine and ice core chronostratigraphies these two arabian sea climatic events correspond to greenland interstadials 20 and 19 respectively our data sets thus depict substantial interstadial stadial fluctuations in sea surface temperature and surface water productivity we show that variable terrigenous eolian sediment supply played a crucial role in transferring and preserving the productivity signal in the sediment record within the provided stratigraphic resolution of several decades to centennials none of these proxies shows a particular impact of the toba eruption however our results are additional support that toba despite its exceptional magnitude had only a minor impact on the evolution of low latitude monsoonal climate on centennial to millennial time scales

in situ measurement of hafnium isotopes in rutile by la mc icpms protocol and applications article i nfo this work presents a rigorous assessment of the accuracy and precision with which 176 hf 177 hf can be measured in rutile by laser ablation la mc icpms for rutile with 40 ppm hf we demonstrate that 176 hf 177 hf can be measured accurately and reproducibly with adequate precision for application to petrological problems we present an analytical and data reduction protocol tailored to the specific challenges of measuring hf isotope ratios in this low hf mineral precision and accuracy are optimised by interpolating between baselines measured every 10 analyses for many rutiles the advantages of determining the hf mass bias coefficient hf during analysis are negated by the low precision with which it can be measured at low hf contents hf mass bias is therefore monitored by regular analysis of a synthetic rutile doped with 5000 ppm hf sr 2 to facilitate an external mass bias correction because rutile contains negligible yb the yb mass bias coefficient yb must be inferred from yb hf measured on zircon in the same session to account for a systematic instrument bias of 0 5 1 ehf units rutile analyses are normalised to sr 2 for which 176 hf 177 hf has

a 225 kyr record of dust supply paleoproductivity and the oxygen minimum zone from the murray ridge northern arabian sea abstract analysis of a 15 m long sediment core recovered from the murray ridge northern arabian sea reveals a 225 000 year record of climate induced variations in surface water productivity mid water ventilation and dust input in the northern arabian sea productivity and dust input records closely resemble those from the owen ridge and oman margin also the phase lag of 10 kyr between maximum productivity and precession minimum is in phase with the summer monsoon upwelling record from the owen ridge and the oman margin this implies that the productivity variations in the northern arabian sea during the last 225 kyr are primarily controlled by changes in the indian ocean summer monsoon the winter monsoon obviously played a minor role in the productivity history of the northern arabian sea another result from this study is that the mg al record from the murray ridge nicely documents the post glacial flooding of the persian gulf which is the main glacial source for dolomite dust in this region finally it is concluded that the intensity of the omz co varies with surface water productivity being weak during periods of reduced summer monsoon especially during glacial periods

what level of resolution is attainable in a deep sea core results of a spectrophotometer study a minolta cm 2022 spectrophotometer has been used to characterize downcore fluctuations in sediment lightness and color in core neap15k a 7 m core collected from the northeast atlantic ocean high resolution data series measured using a 4 mm diameter measurement spot and a 1 cm sampling interval were generated along two independent tracks down the core to investigate the statistical significance of fluctuations across the 2 20 cm depth range this small scale variability is characterized by abrupt changes in the lightness and color of the sediment that are several orders of magnitude greater than the instrumental precision our results establish that significant information is preserved at the 1 cm scale in spite of bioturbation effects these findings demonstrate that high resolution studies using conventional paleoclimatic proxies have the potential to recover meaningful century scale climate records in regions of the ocean where sedimentation rates exceed 10 cm per thousand years the coherency of these downcore records also implies that the spectrophotometer is a powerful instrument for establishing precise centimeter scale stratigraphic correlations between cores

the geochemistry of redox sensitive trace metals in sediments abstract we analyzed the redox sensitive elements v mo u re and cd in surface sediments from the northwest african margin the u s northwest margin and the arabian sea to determine their response under a range of redox conditions where oxygen penetrates 1 cm or less into the sediments mo and v diffuse to the overlying water as mn is reduced and remobilized authigenic enrichments of u re and cd are evident under these redox conditions with the onset of sulfate reduction all of the metals accumulate authigenically with re being by far the most enriched general trends in authigenic metal accumulation are described by calculating authigenic fluxes for the 3 main redox regimes oxic reducing where oxygen penetrates 1 cm and anoxic conditions using a simple diagenesis model and global estimates of organic carbon rain rate and bottom water oxygen concentrations we calculate the area of sediments below 1000 m water depth in which oxygen penetration is 1 cm to be 4 of the ocean floor we conclude that sediments where oxygen penetrates 1 cm release mn v and mo to seawater at rates of 140 260 60 150 and 5 10 of their respective riverine fluxes using the authigenic metal concentrations and accumulation rates from this work and other literature these sediments are sinks for re cd and u with burial fluxes of 70 140 30 80 and 20 40 respectively of their dissolved riverine inputs we modeled the sensitivity of the response of seawater re cd and v concentrations to changes in the area of reducing sediments where oxygen penetrates 1 cm our analysis suggests a negligible change in seawater re concentration whereas seawater concentrations of cd and v could have decreased and increased respectively by 5 10 over 20 kyr if the area of reducing sediments increased by a factor of 2 and by 10 20 if the area increased by a factor of 3 the concentration variations for a factor of 2 increase in the area of reducing sediments are at about the level of uncertainty of cd ca and v ca ratios observed in foraminifera shells over the last 40 kyr this implies that the area of reducing sediments in the ocean deeper than 1000 m 4 has not been greater than twice the present value in the recent past

export production and carbonate dissolution in the central equatorial pacific ocean over the past 1 myr in order to quantify changes in export production and carbonate dissolution over the past 1 myr in the central equatorial pacific ocean we analyzed ba p a1 ti and ca in 1106 samples from five piston cores gathered from 5os to 4on at 140ow we focused on ba ti a1 ti and p ti ratios as export proxies and employed areally integrated time slice as well as time series strategies carbonate maxima from 0 560 kyr are characterized by 15 30 greater export than carbonate minima the increases in export fall on glacial 5180 transitions rather than glacial maxima from 560 800 kyr overlapping with the mid pleistocene transition there is a very large increase in total export yet no glacial interglacial variability the highest latitudes 5os and 4on record minimal absolute export change from glacials to interglacials and yet record the most extreme minima in percent caco3 indicating that carbonate records there are dominated by dissolution whereas near the equator they are more influenced by changes in export

oxygenation history of bottom waters in the cariaco basin venezuela over the past 578 000 years results from redox sensitive metals mo v mn and fe we present results from analyses of the redox sensitive metals mo v mn and fe in sediment recovered from the cariaco basin ocean drilling program leg 165 site 1002 results are interpreted in the context of previous studies of 15n export production percent total organic carbon eolian input and hemipelagic deposition in the basin variations in redox metal ratios over the past 578 000 years were compared to variations in 18o at milankovitch frequencies and show a strong relationship between glacial interglacial cycles in sea level governed by the shallow sills encircling cariaco basin and bottom water oxygen content during 100 kyr and 41 kyr cyclicity enrichments of mo and v occur during highly productive interglacials indicating bottom water anoxia during glacials sediments are less depleted or enriched in mn and fe relative to the interglacials reflecting oxic conditions during 23 kyr and 19 kyr cyclicity however these redox metal patterns are not observed indicating that the cariaco basin responds differently to the higher frequency climate changes

sea surface temperatures and the history of monsoon upwelling in the northwest arabian sea during the last 500 000 years abstract arabian sea sediments record changes in the upwelling system off arabia which is driven by the monsoon circulation system over the nw indian ocean in accordance with climate models and differing from other large upwelling areas of the tropical ocean a 500 000 yr record of productivity at odp site 723 shows consistently stronger upwelling during interglaciations than during glaciations sea surface temperatures ssts reconstructed from the alkenone unsaturation index uk 37 are high up to 27 c during interglaciations and low 22 24 c during glaciations indicating a glacial interglacial temperature change of 3 c in spite of the dampening effect of enhanced or weakened upwelling the increased productivity is attributed to stronger monsoon winds during interglacial times relative to glacial times whereas the difference in ssts must be unrelated to upwelling and to the summer monsoon intensity the winter ne monsoon was more effective in cooling the arabian sea during glaciations then it is now

human occupation of the northern arabian interior during early marine isotope stage 3 the early part of marine isotope stage mis 3 ca 60 50 ka is a crucial period for studying human demography and behaviour in south west asia and how these relate to climatic changes however the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records for mis 3 in critical areas such as the arabian peninsula remain poorly developed here we present findings from the al marrat basin in the nefud desert which provides the first clear evidence for both increased humidity and human occupation of the interior of northern arabia during early mis 3 a middle palaeolithic assemblage dated by optically stimulated luminescence to ca 55 ka was found stratified within a sequence of relict palustrine deposits indicative of shallow water body formation in the al marrat basin hominin presence in northern arabia at this time coincides with the intensification and northward displacement of monsoon rainfall systems during a period of maximum insolation these findings add to a growing corpus of palaeoenvironmental evidence which indicates that the arabian interior was neither arid nor unpopulated during early mis 3 and that hydrodynamic responses to enhanced moisture availability facilitated demographic expansions into the arabian interior

climatically linked oscillations in arabian sea denitrification over the past 1 m y implications for the marine n cycle water column and core top 15n data show that arabian sea denitrification produces large nitrogen isotopic enrichments that are regionally recorded with fidelity in the sediments these results facilitate interpretation of a 1 m y 15n record for ocean drilling program site 722b on the owen ridge in terms of climatically linked oscillations in denitrification at the major orbital periods as at present denitrification was greatest during interglacial periods and apparently was not active during most glacial intervals cross spectral analysis of 15n with foraminiferal 18o global climate sea level index and lithogenic grain size monsoon strength index suggests forcings by changes in hydrography and productivity acting through the extent and intensity of the oxygen minimum zone the data suggest that denitrification may be an internal forcing mechanism for climate change during major glacial interglacial transitions through influence on marine n inventory and atmospheric co2 however compensation or amplification may occur from other sinks sediment denitrification or sources nitrogen fixation

hydrographic changes in the southern bay of bengal during the last 65 000 y inferred from carbon and oxygen isotopes of foraminiferal fossil shells abstract we present 13 c and 18 o records of planktonic globigerinoides ruber and benthic foraminifera cibicidoides spp from two deep sea sediment cores sk157 15 and sk157 16 from the southern bay of bengal the chronology of these gravity cores was established using eleven ams radiocarbon ages from mixed species of planktonic foraminifera globigerinoides ruber and globigerinoides sacculifer and oxygen isotope stratigraphy large variations in 13 c and 18 o of planktonic and benthic foraminifera in these cores are suggestive of significant changes in surface and deep water masses for the 65 ka bp the 18 o values in planktonic foraminifera in both these cores are significantly higher relative to sediment cores from the western bay of bengal and the andaman sea because of the reduced influence of riverine fresh water fluxes benthic 13 c values in cores sk157 15 and sk157 16 exhibit significant variations in source water characteristics during the holocene and the last glaciation large decrease in 13 c values of bottom dwelling benthic foraminifera cibicidoides spp during the last glacial maximum lgm and 50 65 ka bp suggest drastic reduction in north atlantic deep water nadw fluxes into the southern bay of bengal and concurrent increase of deep water formed in the southern ocean sodw with significantly low 13 c values

attenuation of millennial scale events by bioturbation in marine sediments the discovery of large millennial scale oscillations 1 10 kyr period in climate records from ice cores and marine sediments in the north atlantic has motivated the search to understand their cause and evaluate the geographic extent of this variability one uncertainty in comparing marine geologic records of millennial scale variability is the extent to which mixing of sediment by organisms at the seafloor bioturbation may attenuate millennial scale events in the stratigraphic record evidence of attenuation of millennial variability can be found in cores with sedimentation rates in the range of 5 15 cm kyr modeling the attenuation of a hypothetical input time series similar to gisp2 using a moderate level of mixing provides estimates of attenuation as a function of sedimentation rate the amplitude of a 4 kyr duration event is reduced by 50 for sedimentation rates10 cm kyr and reduced by 20 for sedimentation rates of 20 cm kyr minimal attenuation 5 is achieved only when the sedimentation rate exceeds 50 cm kyr for a 4 kyr duration event and 70 cm kyr for a 2 kyr duration event the intensity of mixing plays a role in determining how much attenuation occurs the amplitude of a 4 kyr duration event in a 10 cm kyr core is reduced by 75 under strong mixing or reduced by 25 under weak mixing this study indicates that the original amplitude of dansgaard oeschger do millennial scale events observed during the last glacial may be twice the observed amplitude for cores with sedimentation rates 10 20 cm kyr that have experienced moderate bioturbation regional comparisons of the amplitude of millennial scale variability will require cores with weak mixing or sedimentation rates exceeding 50 cm kyr in order to avoid biased estimates of the amplitude of millennial scale 4 kyr duration variability

amplitude variations of 1470 year climate oscillations during the last 100 000 years linked to fluctuations of continental ice mass we describe amplitude variations of a 1470 year y signal in the oxygen isotope record from the gisp2 ice core as a function of continental ice mass as recorded in sea level variations the 1470 y signal is closely tied to dansgaard oeschger interstadial events which perturbed the climate system on a global scale large amplitude 1470 y oscillations occur only if continental ice mass exceeds a threshold level equivalent to sea level at approximately 45 m and are tied to times of change in ice mass minima of the 1470 y signal in the greenland ice are associated with short time intervals of relatively stable phases of sea level and with reduced climate variability in the entire periodicity range between approximately 550 5000 y

synchroneity of oxygen minimum zone intensity on the oman and pakistan margins at sub milankovitch time scales abstract in this paper we present evidence for sub milankovitch variability in monsoon intensity from the oman and pakistan margins northern arabian sea a new high resolution geochemical record from the oman margin combined with microfossil data shows high frequency variations in sea surface productivity caused by changes in the intensity of summer monsoon induced upwelling the local oxygen minimum zone omz which presently impinges on the oman margin was reconstructed using laminations redox sensitive elements and aragonite preservation comparison with a pakistan margin record shows that omz intensity varied synchronously across the basin omz intensity varies together with summer monsoon strength being weakest during periods of minimum summer monsoon intensity correlating the pattern of summer monsoon variability with that of the winter monsoon inferred from proxy records in the northeastern arabian sea suggests a reversed relationship between summer and winter monsoon strength furthermore the oman and pakistan margin records confirm earlier results suggesting a link between high northern latitude climate as reconstructed from greenland ice cores and monsoonal climate

al to oxide and ti to organic linkages in biogenic sediment relationships to paleo export production and bulk al ti abstract to increase our understanding of the mechanisms that control the distribution of al and ti within marine sediment we performed sequential extractions targeting the chemical signatures of the loosely bound exchangeable carbonate oxide organic opal and residual fraction of sediment from a carbonate dominated regime equatorial pacific and from a mixed opal terrigenous regime west antarctic peninsula we observe a systematic partitioning of al and ti between sediment phases that is related to bulk al ti we show that where we can quantify an alexcess component the dissolved al is preferentially affiliated with the oxide fraction resulting in al ti molar ratios of 500 3000 this is interpreted as the result of surface complexation in the water column of dissolved al onto oxyhydroxides we also observe a previously undetected tiexcess with as much as 80 of the total ti in the organic fraction which is most likely a function of metal organic colloidal removal from the water column in samples where the excess metals are obscured by the detrital load the al and ti are almost exclusively found in the residual phase this argues for the paired removal of al preferentially by the oxide component and ti preferentially by the organic component from the water column by settling particulate matter this research builds upon earlier work that shows changes in the bulk ratio of al to ti in carbonate sediment from the central equatorial pacific that coincide with changes in the sedimentary bulk accumulation rate bar the ratios that are observed are as much as three times higher than typical shale values and were interpreted as the result of scavenging of dissolved al onto particles settling in the water column because this non terrigenous alexcess accounts for up to 50 of the total sedimentary al inventory and correlates best with bar the bulk al ti may be a sensitive tracer of particle flux and therefore export production because we show that the excess metals are the result of scavenging processes the bulk al ti may be considered a sensitive proxy for this region

a global marine fixed nitrogen isotopic budget implications for holocene nitrogen cycling 1 a nitrogen stable isotopic model was constructed in order to constrain the holocene marine fixed nitrogen budget the primary sources and sinks considered were riverine and atmospheric sources nitrogen fixation sedimentary and water column denitrification and sediment burial the source budget was found to be insensitive to changes in nitrogen fixation rates and thus could not be used to constrain this term however the isotopic value of fixed nitrogen losses was very sensitive to the amount of sedimentary denitrification if the isotopic value of marine fixed nitrogen has not changed during the holocene as supported by sedimentary records then in order to balance the isotopic value of sinks and sources approximately 280 tg n yr 1 of sedimentary denitrification is required if such a high rate of denitrification has been sustained throughout the holocene it implies that present day estimates of marine nitrogen fixation are grossly underestimated it also implies that the marine nitrogen budget has a residence time of less than 2000 years

age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages development of a high resolution 0 to 300 000 year chronostratigraphy using the concept of orbital tuning a continuous high resolution deep sea chronostratigraphy has been developed spanning the last 300 000 yr the chronology is developed using a stacked oxygen isotope stratigraphy and four different orbital tuning approaches each of which is based upon a different assumption concerning the response of the orbital signal recorded in the data each approach yields a separate chronology the error measured by the standard deviation about the average of these four results which represents the best chronology has an average magnitude of only 2500 yr this small value indicates that the chronology produced is insensitive to the specific orbital tuning technique used excellent convergence between chronologies developed using each of five different paleoclimatological indicators from a single core is also obtained the resultant chronology is also insensitive to the specific indicator used the error associated with each tuning approach is estimated independently and propagated through to the average result the resulting error estimate is independent of that associated with the degree of convergence and has an average magnitude of 3500 yr in excellent agreement with the 2500 yr estimate transfer of the final chronology to the stacked record leads to an estimated error of 1500 yr thus the final chronology has an average error of 5000 yr