Storfjorden, Svalbard, is an area of intense brine formation. The brine is cold, dense, rich in oxygen and CO2, and has reduced pH. Storfjorden is unique because it contains well-preserved agglutinated foraminifera dating back to the beginning of the last deglaciation. We have investigated the distribution of calcareous and agglutinated benthic foraminifera, benthic oxygen and carbon isotopes, ...

Benthic communities below the photic zone are largely reliant on the export of surface-water primary production and the flux of partially degraded organic matter to the seabed, i.e. pelagic−benthic coupling. Over the past decades, however, the role of chemosynthetically produced carbon in food webs has been recognized in various habitats. Cold seeps are now known to be widespread across circumpolar ...

Four cores from 1200 m water depth from Vestnesa Ridge on the western Svalbard margin in the eastern Fram Strait were studied for their content of fossil macro-faunas. Three of the cores were collected from a pockmark with active methane seepage, and one core (control core) was taken just outside the seepage area for comparison. Together the cores cover the last 45 000 years (mid-late Weichselian ...

The 8200-year BP cooling event is reconstructed in part from sediments in the Norwegian and North Seas. Here we show that these sediments have been reworked by the Storegga tsunami – dated to the coldest decades of the 8.2 ka event. We simulate the maximum tsunami flow velocity to be 2–5 m/s on the shelf offshore western Norway and in the shallower North Sea, and up to about 1 m/s down to a water ...

The present-day ocean ventilation in the Arctic Mediterranean (Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean), via transformation of northward inflowing warm Atlantic surface water into cold deep water, affects regional climate, atmospheric circulation and carbon storage in the deep ocean. Here we study the glacial evolution of the Arctic Mediterranean circulation and its influence on glacial climate using ...

Changes in the Arctic climate-ocean system can rapidly impact carbon cycling and cryosphere. Methane release from the seafloor has been widespread in the Barents Sea since the last deglaciation, being closely linked to changes in pressure and bottom water temperature. Here, we present a post-glacial bottom water temperature record (18,000–0 years before present) based on Mg/Ca in benthic foraminifera ...

Although the plankton communities in the Barents Sea have been intensely studied for decades, little is known about the living planktonic foraminiferal (LPF) and pteropod faunas, especially those found at methane seep sites. Along a repeated transect in the “crater area” (northern Barents Sea, 74.9°N, 27.7°E) in spring and summer 2016 the flux of LPF and of the pteropod species <i>Limacina helicina</i> ...

Antarctic ice cores document glacial-interglacial and millennial-scale variability in atmospheric pCO2 over the past 800 kyr. The ocean, as the largest active carbon reservoir on this timescale, is thought to have played a dominant role in these pCO2 fluctuations, but it remains unclear how and where in the ocean CO2 was stored during glaciations and released during (de)glacial millennial-scale ...

Frenulate species were identified from a high Arctic methane seep area on Vestnesa Ridge, western Svalbard margin (79°N, Fram Strait) based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mtCOI). Two species were found: <i>Oligobrachia haakonmosbiensis</i>, and a new, distinct, and undescribed <i>Oligobrachia</i> species. The new species adds to the cryptic <i>Oligobrachia</i> species complex found ...

Increasingly, strontium (Sr) isotopes are used to distinguish locals and migrants in prehistoric studies, by measuring ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr in human remains and comparing these values to the distribution of the bioavailable ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr in the study area, often in surface water. However, it has recently been shown that agricultural lime can have a substantial impact on ...