Variations of chlorophyll-a and particulate organic carbon in the Yellow-Bohai Sea: in response to the Typhoon Lekima event

Typhoon events have large impacts on marginal seas’ environmental conditions with implications for biological processes and carbon cycling. However, little is known about the responses of phytoplankton and particulate organic carbon (POC) to typhoon events in the Yellow-Bohai Sea (YBS). In this study, we utilized satellite-derived datasets of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and POC, together with key physical parameters, to analyze their responses to the Typhoon Lekima event induced heavy rainfall and strong winds. Overall, there were enhanced upwelling, strengthened currents, and increased terrestrial runoff during weakened Typhoon Lekima in the YBS. The basin-scale response of Chl-a showed large differences post the Typhoon Lekima event, with a decrease in the Bohai Sea (BS, 0.34 ± 3.0 mg m−3) but an increase in Yellow Sea (YS, 0.23 ± 1.7 mg m−3 in the south YS and 0.54 ± 0.8 mg m−3 in the north YS). The increase of Chl-a in the YS was attributed to increased nutrients, whereas the reduction of Chl-a in the BS was caused by dilution and water exchange with the North Yellow Sea. However, there was an overall increase in POC post-Typhoon Lekima in both BS and YS. The increase of POC in the majority of BS resulted largely from enhanced sediment resuspension and terrigenous input. The increase of POC in the nearshore waters of YS was attributable to enhanced biological production, sediment resuspension, and terrigenous input of POC, whereas the increase of POC in the central YS was partly due to transportation of high-POC waters from nearshore to offshore via strengthened current. Our study highlights the complex impacts of typhoon events on the carbon cycle in marginal seas.

New insights into the depositional environment and stratigraphic position of the Gugu Breccia (Pădurea Craiului Mountains, Romania)

The study of the carbonate clasts and matrix of a problematic sedimentary formation (the Gugu Breccia) from the Pădurea Craiului Mountains reveals new information concerning its depositional environment and stratigraphic position. The identified microfacies and micropaleontological assemblages demonstrate that all the sampled limestone clasts from the Gugu Breccia represent remnants of a fragmented Urgonian-type carbonate platform. The Barremian age of the clasts suggests that the stratigraphic position of the Gugu Breccia at its type locality could be uppermost Barremian-lowermost Aptian, a fact demonstrated also by the absence of elements from Lower Cretaceous carbonate platforms higher in the stratigraphic column (e.g., Aptian or Albian) of the Bihor Unit. The sedimentological observations together with the matrix mineralogy bring new arguments for the recognition of terrigenous input during the formation of the Gugu Breccia.

Geochemical Characteristics of the Middle Devonian Dacaozi-Tanshanping Shale Strata in the Yanyuan Basin, Southwest China: Implications for Organic Matter Accumulation and Preservation

How the geochemical characteristics of organic matter shale for the carbonate platform facies remain uncertain, which restricts an integrated reconstruction of the model of organic matter accumulation and preservation. Here, we present new results from element geochemical fingerprinting and integrated analyses of paleoclimate, paleoproductivity, paleoredox environment, and terrigenous input of the targeted Middle Devonian Tanshanping and Dacaozi Formations in the Ninglang-Yanyuan Basin, Southwest China. It is worth noting that although the carbonate platform connects with the open sea partially, the redox environment will not be completely controlled by relative sea level variations. Specially, the paleoclimate, paleoproductivity, and paleoredox conditions are the main controlling factors of the accumulation and preservation of organic matter. In view of the paleoclimate indexes, we suggest that both a relatively warm-humid climate characterized by intensified chemical weathering conditions and a higher terrigenous input are identified as two major drivers forcing the reductive environment in the sedimentary waterbody. Finally, a comprehensive model is established for providing new insights into the mechanism of organic matter accumulation and preservation for the carbonate platform facies. The paleoredox environment, paleoproductivity, paleoclimate, and terrigenous input are believed to have exerted a very considerable force on reconstructing the model of organic matter accumulation and preservation for the carbonate platform facies. Specially, the coupling interactions between the paleoproductivity and redox condition are thus also stressed. We found that the preservation condition is much more important than the paleoproductivity, resulting in the degree of organic matter enrichment. Even if the paleoproductivity of a sedimentary waterbody of a depositional period of the Dacaozi Formation was higher, the TOC concentrations were relatively low due to the poor preservation condition by fall of the sea level and increase of the terrigenous input. In another aspect, the better preservation condition of the Tanshanping Formation makes the TOC concentrations higher in the case of lower paleoproductivity in the sedimentary waterbody.

Deoxygenation dynamics on the western Nile deep-sea fan during sapropel S1 from seasonal to millennial timescales

Ocean deoxygenation is a rising threat to marine ecosystems and food resources under present climate warming conditions. Organic-rich sapropel layers deposited in the Mediterranean Sea provide a natural laboratory to study the processes that have controlled changes in seawater oxygen levels in the recent geological past. Our study is based on three sediment cores spanning the last 10 000 years and located on a bathymetric transect offshore from the western distributaries of the Nile delta. These cores are partly to continuously laminated in the sections recording sapropel S1, which is indicative of bottom-water anoxia above the western Nile deep-sea fan. We used a combination of microfacies analyses and inorganic and organic geochemical measurements to reconstruct changes in oxygenation conditions at seasonal to millennial timescales. Millimetre-thick laminations are composed of detrital, biogenic and chemogenic sublayers reflecting seasonal successions of sedimentation. Dark layers reflect the deposition of summer floods and two types of light layers correspond to autumn plankton blooms and authigenic carbonates formed in the water column during spring–early summer, respectively. The isotopic signature of the authigenic carbonates suggests permanent anoxic to euxinic bottom waters resulting in high levels of anaerobic remineralization of organic matter and highlights their potential to reconstruct seawater chemistry at times when benthic fauna was absent. Ratios of major elements combined with biomarkers of terrestrial and marine organic matter and redox-sensitive compounds allow changes in terrigenous input, primary productivity and past deoxygenation dynamics on millennial timescales to be tracked. Rapid fluctuations of oxygenation conditions in the upper 700 m water depth occurred above the Nile deep-sea fan between 10 and 6.5 ka BP, while deeper cores recorded more stable anoxic conditions. Synchronous changes in terrigenous input, primary productivity and past oxygenation dynamics after 6.5 ka BP show that runoff-driven eutrophication played a central role in rapid oxygenation changes in the south-eastern Levantine Basin. These findings are further supported by other regional records and reveal time-transgressive changes in oxygenation state driven by rapid changes in primary productivity during a period of long-term deep-water stagnation.

Sedimentary Responses to Climate Changes and Human Activities Over the Past 7400 Years in the Western Sunda Shelf

High-resolution records of grain size, major and trace elements, and Sr-Nd isotopes of Core K17 from the western Sunda Shelf were investigated to evaluate the response of weathering and terrigenous input to climatic changes and human activities over the past 7400 years. Sr-Nd isotopic results indicate that the Kelantan River is the main source of sedimentary material in the study core since the mid-Holocene. Chemical weathering levels are represented by the chemical index of alteration (CIA), αAlNa, and K2O/Al2O3 ratios; and geochemical and grain size proxies (including TiO2/CaO, Rb/Sr ratios, and grain size end-member) were used to establish variations of terrigenous input into the study core since 7400 cal yr BP. Based on these records, the evolution of weathering and terrigenous input processes in the western Sunda Shelf can be divided into four stages. During stage 1 (7400–3700 cal yr BP), increasing precipitation and decreasing temperature jointly balanced the relatively stable weathering and terrigenous sediment supply. Dramatically decreasing weathering rates were consistent with less rainfall and lower temperatures during stage 2 (3700–2600 cal yr BP). Heavy rainfall played a more important role than low temperature in controlling weathering and erosion, leading to increasing terrigenous input in stage 3 (2700–1600 cal yr BP). Because of the decoupling between weathering, erosion, and climate in the late Holocene (stage 4, since 1600 cal yr BP), increasing agriculture and related human activities likely dominated weathering and erosion relative to climate changes. Furthermore, the initial time at which human activity overwhelmed natural processes in the southern South China Sea (SCS) is similar to that in the northern SCS. Our results highlight that human activities during the past 1600 years have gradually overwhelmed natural climatic controls on weathering and erosion processes in the western Sunda Shelf.

Last Deglaciation—Holocene Australian-Indonesian Monsoon Rainfall Changes Off Southwest Sumba, Indonesia

Previous studies suggested the multi-millennial scale changes of Australian-Indonesian monsoon (AIM) rainfall, but little is known about their mechanism. Here, AIM rainfall changes since the Last Deglaciation (~18 ka BP) are inferred from geochemical elemental ratios (terrigenous input) and palynological proxies (pollen and spores). Pollen and spores indicate drier Last Deglaciation (before ~11 ka BP) and wetter Holocene climates (after ~11 ka BP). Terrigenous input proxies infer three drier periods (i.e., before ~17, ~15–13.5, and 7–3 ka BP) and three wetter periods (i.e., ~17–15, ~13.5–7, and after ~3 ka BP) which represent the Australian-Indonesian summer monsoon (AISM) rainfall changes. Pollen and spores were highly responsive to temperature changes and showed less sensitivity to rainfall changes due to their wider source area, indicating their incompatibility as rainfall proxy. During the Last Deglaciation, AISM rainfall responded to high latitude climatic events related to the latitudinal shifts of the austral summer ITCZ. Sea level rise, solar activity, and orbitally-induced insolation were most likely the primary driver of AISM rainfall changes during the Holocene, but the driving mechanisms behind the latitudinal shifts of the austral summer ITCZ during this period are not yet understood.

Sedimentary responses to the climate changes in the Bay of Bengal since the last glaciation

<p>A sedimentary multi-index comprehensive study on a gravity core collected from the central Bay of Bengal (BoB) was presented with an attempt to understand the sedimentary processes and their responses to climate changes since the last glaciation. The sea level is suggested to be responsible for significant distinction of the terrigenous input between the last glaciation and the Holocene period through the depositional center transition in the BoB at the glacial-interglacial scale. The monsoon controlled terrigenous input at precession-related scales since it showed similar patterns with solar radiation and precipitation before 18 ka. Terrigenous input responses to the climate changes in the north Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation and early Holocene suggested at millennial scales. The paleoproductivity in the central BoB was at a roughly equivalent level during the last glaciation and the Holocene period, as indicated by the authigenic element accumulation rates. Different terrestrial nutrient inputs and ocean surface stratifications related to the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) were suggested to be responsible for this pattern. This study provides a brief understanding of the sedimentary response to the climate and emphasizes the different roles of the sea level and ISM in the central BoB.</p>