Diatoms from the late Holocene of the western Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean: environmental signals and palaeoceanography

Sammanfattning: The sediment Core SWERUS-L2-2-PC1 (2PC) retrieved from the Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean sits in an oceanographically dynamic location at the Arctic-Pacific Ocean gateway. The 8.3 m-long core was retrieved in Herald Canyon at the marginal ice zone at 57 m depth. Core 2PC is well-positioned to record variability in inflow of Bering Sea Water (BSW) and Pacific Water (PW) in Herald Canyon. With the 2PC high sedimentation rate (200 cm/kyr), two independent age models (radiocarbon and palaeomagnetism) based on tephra age markers, and a richness in well-preserved siliceous sediment, validate 2PC as an outstanding sequence for applying diatom assemblage analysis as a proxy for ocean-climate change back to 4250 years BP, including the past few hundred years where global warming and sea ice decline is recorded by instrumental records. These characteristics make Core-2PC a useful record for investigating the role of PW on sea ice variability in the Chukchi Sea, both in the past and predicting the future. To investigate the impact of PW on ocean and sea ice conditions in the Chukchi Sea, diatom assemblage analysis was performed on 49 samples through the Late Holocene. The over-arching goal was to test the hypothesis, suggested by existing research on 2PC using benthic foraminifera Mg/Ca palaeothermometry, that the strength of PW inflow into the Chukchi Sea via Herald Canyon has varied on a time scales of ~500-1000 years in the past 4000 years. PW is slightly warmer than resident Arctic surface waters and is known to be an important control on Arctic sea-ice. The diatom assemblage approach assumes that there are recognizable differences between end-member diatom assemblages that are characteristic of PW versus Arctic Ocean type environments associated with extensive sea-ice conditions. The mapping of species in the Herald Canyon was used to test the idea of variability of sea-ice extent and the role of the Pacific Ocean forcings into the western Chukchi Sea. The results reveal diverse diatom assemblages throughout the past 4000 years in Herald Canyon, showing this core to be very useful for diatom palaeoclimate reconstructions. A total of 126 species with abundance >1% are recognized. Several generalist species typically dominate assemblages especially Chaetoceros, ice-algae, marine-neritic and near ice or cold-water planktic centric diatoms. Distinct changes in stratigraphy are illustrated by changes in identified diatom assemblage zones. The 2PC diatom assemblages were contrasted with records from Chukchi-, Laptev-, East Siberian- and Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean. At 2PC, sympagic (sea-ice related), planktic and neritic species abundance varies on time scales of ~500-1000 years. Importantly, there is a clear similarity between the timing of diatom assemblage changes and the 2PC benthic foraminifera Mg/Ca bottom water temperature (BWT) reconstruction. In particular, abundance changes in the warm water species Thalassionema nitzschioides, Shionodiscus oestrupii and Thalassionema simonsenii, tychoplanktic Paralia sulcata, Ice algae- and sympagic assemblages and cold-water indicators correspond best to BWT fluctuations shown by the Mg/Ca reconstruction. These oscillations are suggestive of changes in warmer PW inflow. Other aspects of the diatom data appear to correlate with colder and warmer climate events and suggest that changes in PW inflow amplified the effects of these events in the Chukchi Sea region through the Late Holocene in the Northern Hemisphere. It can thus, be concluded that diatoms from 2PC, support the palaeoceanographic reconstruction suggested by the benthic foraminifera Mg/Ca palaeothermometry and that variations in PW inflow through Herald Canyon is an important driver of sea ice variability on thousand-year time scales.