Preliminary results of Late Holocene environmental reconstruction of the western Arctic Ocean

Abstract

The recent changes in the marine and terrestrial environment in the Arctic are urgently needed to be clarified and their impacts assessed. In this study, we examine whether the changes in the marine and terrestrial environment during the 20th and 21st centuries were rapid and significant in amplitude, which has not been seen in the recent past, based on the results of paleoenvironmental analysis. MR22-06C cruise was conducted in August and September 2022, and 32 sediment cores (total length 56 m) were collected at four sites in the Beaufort Sea. In November 2022, the cores were measured, described, and split at the Kochi Core Center, and samples were distributed to research institutes. Continuous environmental reconstructions are possible at the MT1 and MT2 sites near the mouth of the Mackenzie River with a 6-year resolution for the past 3000 years, at the BC2 site off Barrow with a 3-year resolution for the past 1500 years, and at the BC2-2 with a 1-year resolution for the past 500 years. The high-time-resolution environmental reconstructions using the marine cores are expected to recover various environmental information and provide new knowledge.