The results of this thesis can be summarized shortly in the following statements:
Eemian peak SSTs, were not higher than Holocene maximum temperatures
Development of surface temperature and sea ice occurrence in the Bering Sea during glacial termination II show many similarities to glacial termination I.
The SST reconstruction from the Bering Sea does not reflect a thermal dipole relation between North Atlantic and Bering Sea during glacial termination II or MIS 5.
Temperature Comparison
In the geographic setting and discussion, evidence was shown that insolation was probably one of the main climate drivers throughout MIS 5. Therefore, the high insolation during MIS 5e would be expected to cause a warmer climate in the Northern hemisphere when compared to early Holocene times. With respect to sea surface temperature this period of warm climate is observed in the North Atlantic as well as in the open North Pacific, but not in the Bering Sea. This implies that there was obviously an additional cooling factor during MIS 5e in the Western Bering Sea. Such a cooling factor could be an enhanced transport of relatively cold air or water masses into the Bering Sea, or an increased outflow, or decreased inflow of rela-tively warm water. A similar phenomenon, with equal temperatures during MIS 5e and the early Holocene, is visible in the Northern Sea and is explained there with a weakening of the North Atlantic Drift, decreasing the input of warm water masses (Bauch et ai., 2012).
During the Eemian temperature high, the summer temperature is enhanced severely in Siberia.
Kienast et ai. (2011) also showed that the Siberian coast line was shifted northwards in this
period, despite the high sea level. Both factors may have led to a stronger Siberian high,
which enhanced the southward transport of cold arctic air masses over the Western Bering Sea, during summer.Another possible cooling factor could be a change of the Bering Sea current system. Although it is very unlikely that the Bering Strait led cold surface water masses southwards, it may still
have influenced the Bering Sea S ST. Due to a higher Eemian sea level, the Bering Strait was wider, which amplified the outflow of relatively warm surface water from the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean. This resulted in an eiihanced energy transfer to the Arctic Ocean, slowing down the warming of the surface water within the Bering Sea. On the other hand, the rising sea level affected also the gateways in the Aleutian Arc at the southern edge of the Bering Sea, increasing the amount of incoming warm surface water from the Pacific. To evaluate the dimension and importance of each of those factors, further scientific work in this direction is necessary. The most promising approach is probably climate modelling. It should focus on heat transfer through the Bering Strait and atmospheric exchange between the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea, in order to be able to explain the somewhat unexpected temperatures similar to the Holocene maximum despite the increased insolation.
Parallels regarding glacial termination
The comparison of Holocene and Eemian S ST from Atlantic and Pacific cores, respectively, revealed that at most core locations the final temperature rise towards the interglacial maxi-mum evolved parallel in both periods. The glacial terminations however, showed differences in most cases. In core S0201-2-85KL both glacial terminations look very much alike. A pe-nod of cold is ended by a short warm period, followed by a steep temperature decrease, which prevailed for a short period and was in turn followed by the final rise in temperature. The short warm period has about the same temperature as the interglacial high while the following
cool phase is accompanied by temperatures at the glacial level.These steps are similar to glacial termination I (Max eta 1., 2012), supported by 25 data showing sea ice occurrence during cold and no ice in warm phases. The main difference
be-tween the two terminations lies in their relation to summer insolation. The observed shift intemperature patterns, when both records are aligned according to their insolation curves,
could not be observed in other records. This is probably due to stratigraphic uncertainties.Another explanation would be an accelerated deglaciation mechanism due to steeper increase in insolation. Considering all other Eemian SST curves presented in this thesis, this seems very unlikely and should have been visible also in other records. To improve the stratigraphic correlation, comparison of the data of this thesis to other MIS5 cores from the Bering Sea may
be helpful. However, the closely located cores S0201-2-77KL and S0201-2-101KL probably
factors, based on correlation on color b* to core S0201-2-85KL (Riethdorf et ai., 2012). A suggested perennial sea ice cover (Riethdorfet al., 2012) during MIS6, which would explain very coarse ice rafted debris, seems rather unlikely, considering the new data of this thesis.
The major argument against such a lasting ice cover is the presence ofalkenones, which could be confirmed throughout the investigated core parts representing MIS 6.
Over regional teleconnections
The results of this thesis neither indicated an Atlantic-Pacific temperature seesaw, nor an in phase temperature trend relation between both oceans. The Eemian SST development from the Bering Sea, especially the equality to Holocene maximum temperatures, shows different behaviour compared to the Pacific, as well as to the Atlantic Ocean. Additional the uncertain-ty regarding the stratigraphy over MIS5e in core S0201-2-85KL, visible from comparison to the Holocene record, prevent a reliable comparison to temperature trends from other regions during high dynamic phases, like glacial termination II. To clarify, if North Atlantic and North Pacific had parallels in temperature trends during MIS 6/5e transition, like it has been suggested for glacial termination I (Max et al., 2012), would need further S ST data preferable also from the northwestern North Pacific. However, the lack of alkenones and TOC during MIS 5d and during late glacial termination II, fits within the suggested seesaw regarding me-ridional overturning circulation, indicating NPIW formation (Horikawa et ai., 2010). This also confirms model results suggesting a meridional overturning circulation seesaw during phases when the Bering Strait is closed (Hu et ai., 2012).
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Walter Luttmer, and Kirsten Fahl for comprehensive technical support in the geochemical labority.
I also would like to thank Lars Max for helpful support and RalfTiedemann for supportive
supervision.
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Current system in the modern Bering Sea and sub arctic North Pacific 6 Figure 2: Profile of flows between Pacific and Bering Sea 7 Figure 3: Sea surface temperature distribution in the Bering Sea and subarctic North Pacific in 2009 8 Figure 4: Sea ice distribution variability in the Bering Sea 9 Figure 5: Eemian and Holocene June insolation 10 Figure 6: Schematic of extraction procedure 13 Figure 7: Calculated SST after different calibrations 16 Figure 8: Chemical structure of IPzs (Belt et ai., 2007) 17 Figure 9: Depth to age correlation of core SO 201-2-85 KL 18
Figure 10: MIS 5 SST, reconstructed with UK'37. 20
Figure 11: Additional data from core S0201-2-85KL sediments. 22 Figure 12: Comparison of Eemian and Holocene SST in the Bering Sea 26 Figure 13: MIS 5 SST from the Bering Sea and the North Pacific. 28 Figure 14: MIS 5 SST from the Bering Sea and the North Atlantic. 30 Figure 15: Sea ice extend in the Western Bering Sea and Sea of Ochotsk during early Holocene and Termination 1 (Max et ai., 2012). 33
Figure 16: June (green) and December insolation at 60°N plotted against time 34
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Appendix
Age
Table 2: Results ofSST calculation derived from UK'37, and IPz.s analyses. 2 x GC indicates samples
with low alkenone concentration, which were measured a second time in the GC with less hex-ane.'+' indicates IPzs in sample,'-' indicates no IP2s in sample and '?' indicates IPzs
neardetec-tion limit.