HBIs and Sterols in Surface Sediments Across the East Siberian Sea: Implications for Palaeo Sea‐Ice Reconstructions

Abstract Highly branched isoprenoids (HBIs) in marine sediments have emerged as promising semi‐quantitative proxies to reconstruct seasonal sea ice in polar oceans. In this work, we examine the distribution of sympagic HBIs (IP25 and HBI‐II), pelagic phytoplankton biomarkers (brassicasterol, dinoste...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
Main Authors: Liang Su, Jian Ren, Marie‐Alexandrine Sicre, Youcheng Bai, Bassem Jalali, Zhongqiao Li, Haiyan Jin, Anatolii S. Astakhov, Xuefa Shi, Jianfang Chen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022
Subjects:
sea ice
biomarkers
IP25
PIP25 index
East Siberian Sea
Arctic Estuary
Geophysics. Cosmic physics
QC801-809
Geology
QE1-996.5
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Phytoplankton
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GC009940
https://doaj.org/article/e119f9dce76b4d4aae1c858fb066ef1c
Description
Summary:Abstract Highly branched isoprenoids (HBIs) in marine sediments have emerged as promising semi‐quantitative proxies to reconstruct seasonal sea ice in polar oceans. In this work, we examine the distribution of sympagic HBIs (IP25 and HBI‐II), pelagic phytoplankton biomarkers (brassicasterol, dinosterol and HBI‐III) as well as terrestrial sterols (campesterol and β‐sitosterol) in the surface sediments of the East Siberian Sea (ESS) to test their reliability as sea‐ice proxies under continental run‐off influence. Our data suggest that dinosterol performs better than brassicasterol to assess sea ice across the ESS shelf, yet the correlation between PDIP25 and spring sea ice is relatively weak but improves when removing sites with salinity <25. Strongest relationship is found between PIIIIP25 and summer sea ice in regions remote from riverine influence. Overall, our results show that semi‐quantitative estimates of sea ice based on biomarkers can be problematic in Arctic Ocean margins because of biases induced by continental run‐off on biological productivity and sea‐ice production.

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