Marine diatoms record Late Holocene regime shifts in the Pikialasorsuaq ecosystem.

The Pikialasorsuaq (North Water polynya) is an area of local and global cultural and ecological significance. However, over the last decades, the region has been subject to rapid warming, and in some recent years, the seasonal ice arch that has historically defined the polynya's northern boundary has failed to form. Both factors are deemed to alter the polynya's ecosystem functioning. To understand how climate-induced changes to the Pikialasorsuaq impact the basis of the marine food web, we explored diatom community-level responses to changing conditions, from a sediment core spanning the last 3800 years. Four metrics were used: total diatom concentrations, taxonomic composition, mean size, and diversity. Generalized additive model statistics highlight significant changes at ca. 2400, 2050, 1550, 1200, and 130 cal years BP, all coeval with known transitions between colder and warmer intervals of the Late Holocene, and regime shifts in the Pikialasorsuaq. Notably, a weaker/contracted polynya during the Roman Warm Period and Medieval Climate Anomaly caused the diatom community to reorganize via shifts in species composition, with the presence of larger taxa but lower diversity, and significantly reduced export production. This study underlines the high sensitivity of primary producers to changes in the polynya dynamics and illustrates that the strong pulse of early spring cryopelagic diatoms that makes the Pikialasorsuaq exceptionally productive may be jeopardized by rapid warming and associated Nares Strait ice arch destabilization. Future alterations to the phenology of primary producers may disproportionately impact higher trophic levels and keystone species in this region, with implications for Indigenous Peoples and global diversity.

Vulnerability of the North Water ecosystem to climate change.

High Arctic ecosystems and Indigenous livelihoods are tightly linked and exposed to climate change, yet assessing their sensitivity requires a long-term perspective. Here, we assess the vulnerability of the North Water polynya, a unique seaice ecosystem that sustains the world's northernmost Inuit communities and several keystone Arctic species. We reconstruct mid-to-late Holocene changes in sea ice, marine primary production, and little auk colony dynamics through multi-proxy analysis of marine and lake sediment cores. Our results suggest a productive ecosystem by 4400-4200 cal yrs b2k coincident with the arrival of the first humans in Greenland. Climate forcing during the late Holocene, leading to periods of polynya instability and marine productivity decline, is strikingly coeval with the human abandonment of Greenland from c. 2200-1200 cal yrs b2k. Our long-term perspective highlights the future decline of the North Water ecosystem, due to climate warming and changing sea-ice conditions, as an important climate change risk.

Holocene polynya dynamics and their interaction with oceanic heat transport in northernmost Baffin Bay.

Baffin Bay hosts the largest and most productive of the Arctic polynyas: the North Water (NOW). Despite its significance and active role in water mass formation, the history of the NOW beyond the observational era remains poorly known. We reconcile the previously unassessed relationship between long-term NOW dynamics and ocean conditions by applying a multiproxy approach to two marine sediment cores from the region that, together, span the Holocene. Declining influence of Atlantic Water in the NOW is coeval with regional records that indicate the inception of a strong and recurrent polynya from ~ 4400 yrs BP, in line with Neoglacial cooling. During warmer Holocene intervals such as the Roman Warm Period, a weaker NOW is evident, and its reduced capacity to influence bottom ocean conditions facilitated northward penetration of Atlantic Water. Future warming in the Arctic may have negative consequences for this vital biological oasis, with the potential knock-on effect of warm water penetration further north and intensified melt of the marine-terminating glaciers that flank the coast of northwest Greenland.

Learning from the past: Impact of the Arctic Oscillation on sea ice and marine productivity off northwest Greenland over the last 9,000 years.

Climate warming is rapidly reshaping the Arctic cryosphere and ocean conditions, with consequences for sea ice and pelagic productivity patterns affecting the entire marine food web. To predict how ongoing changes will impact Arctic marine ecosystems, concerted effort from various disciplines is required. Here, we contribute multi-decadal reconstructions of changes in diatom production and sea-ice conditions in relation to Holocene climate and ocean conditions off northwest Greenland. Our multiproxy study includes diatoms, sea-ice biomarkers (IP25 and HBI III) and geochemical tracers (TOC [total organic carbon], TOC:TN [total nitrogen], δ13 C, δ15 N) from a sediment core record spanning the last c. 9,000 years. Our results suggest that the balance between the outflow of polar water from the Arctic, and input of Atlantic water from the Irminger Current into the West Greenland Current is a key factor in controlling sea-ice conditions, and both diatom phenology and production in northeastern Baffin Bay. Our proxy record notably shows that changes in sea-surface conditions initially forced by Neoglacial cooling were dynamically amplified by the shift in the dominant phase of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) mode that occurred at c. 3,000 yr BP, and caused drastic changes in community composition and a decline in diatom production at the study site. In the future, with projected dominant-positive AO conditions favored by Arctic warming, increased water column stratification may counteract the positive effect of a longer open-water growth season and negatively impact diatom production.

Environmental forcing on the flux of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts in recent sediments from a subtropical lagoon in the Gulf of California.

To evaluate the relationship of changes in organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) fluxes to sediments with environmental variables (air and sea surface temperatures, El Niño conditions, rainfall, and terrigenous index), cyst assemblages were analyzed in a 210Pb-dated sediment core (~100years) from the pristine San José Lagoon (San José Island, SW Gulf of California). The dinocyst abundance ranged from 3784 to 25,108cystsg-1 and fluxes were of the order of 103-104cystscm-2yr-1. Lingulodinium machaerophorum, Polysphaeridium zoharyi and Spiniferites taxa accounted for 96% of the total dinocyst assemblages, and the abundances of these species increased towards the core surface. P. zoharyi fluxes increased from about 1965 onwards. Redundancy analyses, showed that mean minimum air temperature and terrigenous index were the key factors governing dinocyst fluxes. In this study, dinocyst fluxes of dominant taxa had responded to changes in climate-dependent environmental variables during the past ~20years; this may also be the case in other subtropical coastal lagoons.

Sea ice and primary production proxies in surface sediments from a High Arctic Greenland fjord: Spatial distribution and implications for palaeoenvironmental studies.

In order to establish a baseline for proxy-based reconstructions for the Young Sound-Tyrolerfjord system (Northeast Greenland), we analysed the spatial distribution of primary production and sea ice proxies in surface sediments from the fjord, against monitoring data from the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Programme. Clear spatial gradients in organic carbon and biogenic silica contents reflected marine influence, nutrient availability and river-induced turbidity, in good agreement with in situ measurements. The sea ice proxy IP25 was detected at all sites but at low concentrations, indicating that IP25 records from fjords need to be carefully considered and not directly compared to marine settings. The sea ice-associated biomarker HBI III revealed an open-water signature, with highest concentrations near the mid-July ice edge. This proxy evaluation is an important step towards reliable palaeoenvironmental reconstructions that will, ultimately, contribute to better predictions for this High Arctic ecosystem in a warming climate.

First report of fossilized cysts produced by the benthic Bysmatrum subsalsum (Dinophyceae) from a shallow Mexican lagoon in the Gulf of Mexico.

Cysts belonging to the benthic dinoflagellate Bysmatrum subsalsum were recovered from palynologically treated sediments collected in the Alvarado Lagoon (southwestern Gulf of Mexico). The cysts are proximate, reflecting the features of the parent thecal stage, and their autofluorescence implies a dinosporin composition similar to the cyst walls of phototrophic species. This finding is important for our understanding of B. subsalsum life cycle transitions and ecology. Encystment may play an important role in the bloom dynamics of this species as it can enable the formation of a sediment cyst bank that allows reinoculation of the water column when conditions become favorable. This is the first report of a fossilized cyst produced by a benthic dinoflagellate recovered from sub-recent sediments.