###### Abstract  
The Arctic Ocean is one of the world's most remarkable regions with respect to global climate change. The core ARA09C-St03 was analyzed for mineral composition and Nd isotope to determine the sediment provenance and reconstruct the paleoenvironment in the inner slope of the Chukchi Rise. Core ARA09C-St03 represents overall cycles of brown and gray color with three distinct dark brown layers and two pinkish-white layers and is divided into eight sedimentary units based on the lithological feature. The core has a continuous record of the late marine isotope stage (MIS) 5 to the Holocene and in particular provides a particularly high-resolution record from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Sediment is derived mainly from the adjacent East Siberian Sea and the North American region, and changes in sediment provenance are controlled by climate-dependent particle size. During the glacial/stadial periods, sediments in Units 3, 5, and 8 were supplied by the East Siberian Sea via meltwater-derived suspension. The major ice-rafted debris (IRD) events in Units 2, 4, and 7, characterized by abundant dolomite and K/C ratio, were sourced from North America. The North America-derived materials reflect the initiation and disintegration of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and icebergs transported them across the open Arctic Ocean. The differences in provenance within these periods may be related to the scale of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Interglacial sediments, including those from Units 1 and 6, are of mixed origin from Eurasia and the Canadian Archipelago and may have been transported by oceanic current and seasonal sea ice. These periods are likely associated with the negative Arctic Oscillation (AO) intensifying the Beaufort Gyre. Chukchi Sea; mineralogy; Nd isotope; sediment provenance; paleoenvironment +
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continents [5; 6]. The Arctic Ocean is additionally characterized by permanent sea ice cover, which causes low biological production compared to other oceans [7; 8]. Thus, the sediments in the Arctic are mainly composed of terrigenous materials from the surrounding land masses, and the mineral assemblages are very useful for identifying source areas. Terrigenous materials from surrounding continents can be transported by oceanic currents, sea ice, and icebergs, depending on the marine environment in the Arctic Ocean; thus, identification of source areas of terrigenous sediments provides important information on the transporting pathway and the surface circulation patterns [8; 9; 10; 11]. The Arctic's surface ocean circulation consists of two circulation systems, the Beaufort Gyre (BG) and the Transpolar Draft (TPD), which are regulated by Arctic Oscillation (AO) as shown in Figure 1[11; 12; 13; 14]. In addition, coastal currents flow in the Beaufort Sea and Siberian Sea and are met by some inflows through the Bering Strait [15; 16; 17]. Clay minerals are very fine-grained and can thus be transported over long distances by ocean currents. Coarser particles can only be transported to sites far from the source area by sea ice or icebergs. In particular, IRD coarser than 250 \(\upmu\)m is generally believed to be transported exclusively by icebergs [8; 10; 18]. Discrimination of sediment sources and reconstruction of paleoenvironmental changes can be undertaken based on grain size, mineralogy, and elemental signals. In particular, clay mineralogy and geochemistry have been utilized as powerful tools with which to trace the provenance of terrigenous portions of marine sediments. Several provenance studies have been performed in the Arctic Ocean, using clay mineralogy [19; 20; 21], bulk mineralogy [8; 9; 22; 23], Fe-oxide grains [11; 14], and geochemical signals [24; 25]. These studies have suggested that the Eurasian and North American continents were the major sediment sources in the western Arctic [8; 9; 10; 21; 22; 23]. Because these source areas have different rocks and tectonics, it is easy to identify their provenance through mineralogy and radiogenic isotopes.