The Holocene history of the eastern continental margin of the Laptev Sea: lithological and micropaleontological evidence

Reconstruction of the Holocene history of the eastern Laptev Sea continental margin is based on the downcore records of ice- and iceberg-rafted debris (IRD) and fossil assemblages of benthic and planktic foraminifers in two marine sediment cores obtained from different depths on the continental slope, e. g. 122 and 983 m. The early Holocene (8,2–11,7 cal. ka) is distinguished by its warmest climatic conditions as evidenced by the highest abundance of foraminifers, low IRD content, bioproductivity peaks and high representation of phytodetritus species. At the beginning of the middle Holocene (7,4–8,2 cal. ka), a sharp decrease in foraminifera numbers was recorded, up to their complete disappearance in the core from 122 m water depth. In combination with extremely fine-grained composition of sediments this suggests the development of a thick ice cover, which might have caused a drop in bioproductivity. After 7,4 cal. ka the increasing amount of IRD together with the growing representation of both river-proximal benthic foraminifers and attached epifaunal species indicate climate cooling that has been also recorded previously for the western Laptev Sea. Its manifestations include the growing area of the sea-ice cover, southward shift of the seasonal drift ice margin, and the advance of ice caps on the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago. The IRD peaks with the periodicity of 1–1,5 thousand years are almost synchronous in the west and east of the sea; they coincide with time intervals of 7–7,4, 6,4–6,6, 5–5,8, 2,8–3,8, 1,6–2 and 0,8–1,2 cal. ka.

paleoceanography, ice- and iceberg-rafted debris, foraminifers, Atlantic waters

1. Aksenov Y., Ivanov V.V., Nurser A.J.G., Bacon S., Polyakov I.V., Coward A.C., Naveira-Garabato A.C., Beszczynska-Moeller A. The Arctic Circumpolar Boundary Current. J. Geophys. Res., 2011, vol. 116, C09017, p. 1–28.

2. Alexandrov V., Martin T., Kolatschek J., Eicken H., Kreyscher M., Makshtas A.P. Sea ice circulation in the Laptev Sea and ice export to the Arctic Ocean: Results from satellite remote sensing and numerical modeling. J. Geophys. Res., 2000, vol. 105, p. 17, 143–17, 159.

3. Alley R.B., Ágústsdóttir A.M. The 8 k event: Cause and consequences of a major Holocene abrupt climate change. Quat. Sci. Rev., 2005, vol. 24, p. 1123–1149.

4. Bauch H.A., Mueller-Lupp T., Taldenkova E., Spielhagen R.F., Kassens H., Grootes P.M., Thiede J., Heinemeier J., Petryashov V.V. Chronology of the Holocene transgression at the North Siberian margin. Glob. Planet. Change, 2001, vol. 31, p. 125–139.

5. Bond G., Showers W., Cheseby M., Lotti R., Almasi P., deMenocal P., Priore P., Cullen H., Hajdas I., Bonani G. A pervasive millennial-scale cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and glacial climates. Science, 1997, vol. 278, p. 1257–1265.

6. Darby D.A. Ortiz J.D., Grosch C.E., Lund S.P. 1,500-year cycle in the Arctic Oscillation identified in Holocene Arctic sea-ice drift. Nat. Geosci., 2012, vol. 5, p. 897–900.

7. Dmitrenko I.A., Hoelemann J.A., Kirillov S.A., Berezovskaya S.L., Kassens H. Rol’ barotropnykh izmenenii urovnya morya v formirovanii rezhima techenii na shel’fe vostochnoi chasti morya Laptevykh [The role of barotropic sea-level changes in formation of current regime on the eastern Laptev Sea shelf], DAN, 2001, vol. 377, no. 1, p. 101–107. (In Russian)

8. Dmitrenko I.A., Kirillov S.A., Tremblay L.B., Bauch D., Hölemann J.A., Krumpen T., Kassens H., Wegner C., Heinemann G., Schröder D. Impact of the Arctic Ocean Atlantic water layer on Siberian shelf hydrography. J. Geoph. Res., 2010, vol. 115, C08010.

9. Dobrovol’skii A.D., Zalogin B.S. Morya SSSR [Seas of the USSR], Moscow State Univ. Publ., 1982, 192 p. (In Russian)

10. Eicken H., Reimnitz E., Alexandrov V., Martin T., Kassens H., Viehoff T. Sea ice processes in the Laptev Sea and their importance for sediment export. Cont. Shelf Res., 1997, vol. 17(2), p. 205–233.

11. Fahl K., Stein R. Modern seasonal variability and deglacial/ Holocene change of central Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover: New insights from biomarker proxy records. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett, 2012, vol. 351352, p. 123–133.

12. Fairbanks R.G., Mortlock R.A., Chiu T.-Ch., Cao L., Kaplan A., Guilderson T.P., Fairbanks T.W., Bloom A.L., Grootes P.M., Nadeau M.J. Radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50,000 years BP based on paired 230 Th/234 U/238 U and 14 C dates on pristine corals. Quat. Sci. Rev., 2005, vol. 24, p. 1781–1796.

13. Fatela F., Taborda R. Confidence limits of species proportions in microfossil assemblages. Mar. Micropal., 2002, vol. 45, p. 169–174.

14. Ivanov V.V., Timokhov L.A. Atlanticheskie vody v arkticheskoi tsirkulyatsionnoi transpolyarnoi sisteme [Atlantic waters in the Arctic Transpolar System], Meteorol. i gidrol., 2019, no. 4, p. 3653. (In Russian)

15. Korsun S.A., Pogodina I.A., Tarasov G.A., Matishov G.G. Foraminifery Barentseva morya (gidrobiologiya i chetvertichnaya paleoekologiya) [Foraminifera of the Barents Sea (hydrobiology and Quaternary paleoecology)], Apatity: KNTs RAN Publ., 1994, 136 p. (In Russian)

16. Lubinski D.J., Polyak L.A., Forman S.L. Freshwater and Atlantic water inflows to the deep northern Barents and Kara seas since ca 1314 C ka: foraminifera and stable isotopes. Quat. Sci. Rev., 2001, vol. 20, p. 1851–1879.

17. Miller G.H., Alley R.B., Brigham-Grette J., Fitzpatrick J.J., Polyak L., Serreze M.C., White J. Arctic amplification: can the past constrain the future? Quat. Sci. Rev., 2010, vol. 29, p. 1779–1790.

18. Osterman L.E., Poore R.Z., Foley K.M. Distribution of benthic foraminifers (>125 мm) in the surface sediments of the Arctic Ocean. USGS Bulletin, 1999, vol. 2164, 28 p.

19. Ovsepyan Y.S., Averkina N.O., Taldenkova E.E., Spielhagen R.F., Bauch H.A., Tikhonova A.V. Bentosnye foraminifery kak indikatory proniknoveniya atlanticheskikh vod v arkticheskii bassein v kontse pozdnego pleistotsena golotsene [Benthic foraminifers as indicators of Atlantic water influence in the Arctic during the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene], Vestn. Mosk. Un-ta, Ser. 5, Geogr., 2019, no. 6, p. 41–50. (In Russian)

20. Ovsepyan Y.S., Taldenkova E.E., Bauch H.A., Kandiano E.S. Late Pleistocene–Holocene events on the continental slope of the Laptev Sea: Evidence from benthic and planktonic foraminiferal assemblages. Stratigraphy. Geol. Correlation, 2015, vol. 23, no. 6, p. 645–660.

21. Polyak L., Alley R., Andrews J.T., Brigham-Grette J., Cronin T., Darby D., Dyke A.S., Fitzpatrick J.J., Funder S., Holland M., Jennings A.E., Miller G.H., O’Regan M., Savelle J., Serreze M., St. John K., White J.W.C., Wolff E. History of sea ice in the Arctic. Quat. Sci. Rev., 2010, vol. 29, p. 1757–1778.

22. Polyak L., Korsun S., Febo L., Stanovoy V., Khusid T., Hald M., Paulsen B.E., Lubinski D.A. Benthic foraminiferal assemblages from the southern Kara Sea, a river-influenced arctic marine environment. J. Foraminiferal Res., 2002, vol. 32, no. 3, p. 252–273.

23. Rudels B., Jones E.P., Schauer U., Eriksson P. Atlantic sources of the Arctic Ocean surface and halocline waters. Polar Res., 2004, vol. 23, p. 181–208.

24. Rudenko O., Tarasov P.E., Bauch H.A., Taldenkova E. A Holocene palynological record from the northeastern Laptev Sea and its implications for palaeoenvironmental research. Quat. Int., 2014, vol. 348, p. 82–92.

25. Ślubowska M.A., Koç N., Rasmussen T.L., KlitgaardKristensen D. Changes in the flow of Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean since the last deglaciation: Evidence from the northern Svalbard continental margin, 80°N. Palaeoceanography, 2005, vol. 20, PA4014.

26. Spielhagen R.F., Erlenkeuser H., Siegert C. History of freshwater runoff across the Laptev Sea (Arctic) during the last deglaciation. Glob. Planet. Change, 2005, vol. 48, p. 187–207.

27. Stein R. Arctic Ocean sediments: processes, proxies, and paleoenvironment. Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2008, 592 p.

28. Stepanova A., Taldenkova E., Bauch H.A. Ostracod palaeoecology and environmental change in the Laptev and Kara seas (Siberian Arctic) during the last 18 000 years. Boreas, 2012, vol. 41(4), p. 557–577.

29. Stuiver M., Grootes P.M., Braziunas T. The GISP2 18 O climate record of the past 16,500 years and the role of the sun, ocean and volcanoes. Quat. Res., 1995, vol. 44, p. 341–354.

30. Taldenkova E., Bauch H.A., Gottschalk J., Nikolae S., Rostovtseva Y., Pogodina I., Ovsepyan Y., Kandiano E. History of ice-rafting and water mass evolution at the northern Siberian continental margin (Laptev Sea) during Late Glacial and Holocene times. Quat. Sci. Rev., 2010, vol. 29, p. 3919–3935.

31. Taldenkova E., Bauch H.A., Stepanova A., Ovsepyan Y., Pogodina I., Klyuvitkina T., Nikolaev S. Benthic community changes at the North Siberian margin in response to Atlantic water mass variability since last deglacial times. Mar. Micropal., 2012, vol. 9697, p. 13–28.

32. Timokhov L.A. Regional characteristics of the Laptev and the East Siberian seas: climate, topography, ice phases, thermohaline regime, circulation. Ber. Polarforsch., 1994, vol. 144, p. 15–31.

33. Walker M, Head M.J., Berkelhammer M., Björck S., Cheng H., Cwynar L., Fisher D., Gkinis V., Long A., Lowe J., Newnham R., Rasmussen S.O., Weiss H. Formal ratification of the subdivision of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period): two new Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSPs) and three new stages/subseries. Episodes, 2018, vol. 41, p. 213–223.

34. Wollenburg J.E., Knies J., Mackensen A. High-resolution paleoproductivity fluctuations during the past 24 kyr as indicated by benthic foraminifera in the marginal Arctic Ocean. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclim. Palaeoecol., 2004, vol. 204, p. 209–238.