Alkenone in surface sediments of the Nordic seas and the North Atlantic, supplement to: Rosell-Melé, Antoni (1998): Interhemispheric appraisal of the value of alkenone indices as temperature and salinity proxies in high-latitude locations. Paleoceanography, 13(6), 694-703

• Main Author: Rosell-Melé, Antoni
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 1998
• Subjects: Event label; Latitude of event; Longitude of event; Elevation of event; DEPTH, sediment/rock; Alkenone, C374 peak area; Alkenone, C373 peak area; Alkenone, C372 peak area; Alkenone, C374; Giant box corer; Bottle, Niskin; Piston corer Kiel type; Gravity corer Kiel type; Kasten corer; CTD/Rosette; POS119; M7/2; M7/3; M7/4; M7/5; M21/5; Poseidon; Meteor 1986; Southern Ocean; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.857436; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.857436

Alkenone sediment data from the Nordic seas and North Atlantic are compared to those from Sikes et al. (1997) for the Southern Ocean to evaluate further UK37 and UK37' as proxies to estimate cold temperatures (<10°C) and the effect of salinity and temperature in the relative abundance of 37:4 to the total abundance of C37 alkenones (37:4%). UK37 and UK37' are found to be equally viable as proxies, but there are significant regional differences in their cold temperature dependence. The measurement of 37:4% in cores from the North Atlantic region can be used to identify situations when UK37' is not a reliable paleothermometer. Variations in salinity are probably responsible for changes in the sedimentary record of 37:4%, and a preliminary calibration has been obtained for 37:4%=f(salinity). This new relationship should be further confirmed through field or laboratory experiments, but it paves the way to derive a molecular proxy to reconstruct paleosalinity in surface waters.