What do IP25 and related biomarkers really reveal about sea ice change?

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.11.025

Quaternary Science Reviews

Volume 204, 15 January 2019, Pages 216-219

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.11.025 Get rights and content

Abstract

Significant changes to Arctic and Antarctic sea ice in recent decades has prompted the development and application of novel approaches to the reconstruction of past sea ice conditions over much longer timeframes. One such approach is based on the variable distribution of certain source-specific highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) lipid biomarkers in well-dated marine sediment records. Thus, IP₂₅ and IPSO₂₅ have emerged as useful proxy measures of seasonal sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively. An overview of the salient features of IP₂₅, IPSO₂₅ and related biomarkers is presented, together with aspects that are currently less well understood and potentially provide direction for future research.

References (13)

S.T. Belt
Source-specific biomarkers as proxies for Arctic and Antarctic sea ice
Org. Geochem.
(2018)
S.T. Belt et al.
The Arctic sea ice biomarker IP₂₅: a review of current understanding, recommendations for future research and applications in palaeo sea ice reconstructions
Quat. Sci. Rev.
(2013)
S.T. Belt et al.
A novel chemical fossil of palaeo sea ice: IP₂₅
Org. Geochem.
(2007)
A. de Vernal et al.
Sea ice in the paleoclimate system: the challenge of reconstructing sea ice from proxies – an introduction
Quat. Sci. Rev.
(2013)
D. Köseoğlu et al.
An assessment of biomarker-based multivariate classification methods versus the PIP₂₅ index for paleo Arctic sea ice reconstruction
Org. Geochem.
(2018)
D. Köseoğlu et al.
Complementary biomarker-based methods for characterising Arctic sea ice conditions: a case study comparison between multivariate analysis and the PIP₂₅ index
Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta
(2018)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (23)

Marine sedimentary ancient DNA from Antarctic diatoms
2024, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Antarctica is one of the most susceptible regions to climate change on Earth. Rising ocean temperatures, glacier melting, and disruptions of marine ecosystems make this polar region a focus of research on ecosystem transformation associated with ongoing climate change. Within the Antarctic ecosystem, diatoms, a key group of phytoplankton at the base of the marine food web, play a crucial role in maintaining marine ecosystem balance and functioning. Conventionally, fossil diatom assemblages have been investigated in marine sediment records to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions and understand climate change patterns of Antarctica. Recently, the application of ancient DNA techniques to ocean sediments (sedimentary ancient DNA, sedaDNA) has provided new insights into diatom community responses to environmental change over geological time scales. One benefit of sedaDNA analysis is that this technique can detect fragile diatom species that do not preserve well and are thus difficult to study via traditional microscopy techniques. In this paper, we review the importance of diatoms as indicators of Antarctic paleoenvironmental change, the novel use of diatom sedaDNA to assist Antarctic paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and the challenges and promises of using the sedaDNA approach. We propose that Fragilariopsis cylindrus, an extant polar diatom species, is an ideal model organism to study adaptation patterns of diatoms to changing climate due to its ecological success through time and the availability of whole-genome information for this species. Novel genetic information obtainable from ancient F. cylindrus, as well as other diatoms, will help us to better predict the evolutionary and adaptive dynamics of this important group of primary producers in the climatically vulnerable Antarctic region.
Sea ice in the northern North Atlantic through the Holocene: Evidence from ice cores and marine sediment records
2021, Quaternary Science Reviews
Citation Excerpt :
Recent advances have been made in the development of new proxies to reconstruct sea ice in the northern North Atlantic, notably the sea ice proxy biomarker IP25 (Belt et al., 2007; Müller et al., 2011). Despite this progress, extracting a sea ice signature is often challenging and different proxies do not always agree (Stein et al., 2012; Belt and Müller, 2013; Belt, 2018, 2019). Moreover, marine sediment records often have low temporal resolution and substantial inherent dating uncertainties.
Sea ice plays a pivotal role in Earth's climate and its past reconstruction is crucial to investigate the connections and feedbacks with the other components of the climate system. Among the available archives that store information of past sea ice are marine and ice cores. Recent studies on the IP₂₅ biomarker extracted from marine sediments has shown great skill to infer past changes of Arctic sea ice. In ice matrixes, sodium, bromine and iodine have shown potential to store the fingerprint of sea ice presence. The development of an unambiguous sea ice proxy from ice cores, however, has proven to be a challenging task especially in the Arctic realm.
In this work we analyze the sodium, bromine and iodine records in the RECAP ice core, coastal eastern Greenland, to investigate the sea ice variability in the northern North Atlantic Ocean through the last 11,000 years of the current interglacial, i.e. the Holocene. We compare the RECAP records with marine sea ice proxy records available from the northern North Atlantic.
We suggest that RECAP sodium concentrations can be associated with variability of sea ice extent, while the bromine-to-sodium ratios and iodine are associated respectively with seasonal sea ice and bioproductivity from open ocean and fresh sea ice surfaces.
According to our interpretation, we find that sea ice was at its lowest extent and seasonal in nature during the early Holocene in all regions of the North Atlantic. Increasing sea ice signals are seen from ca. 8–9 ka b2k, in line with long-term Holocene cooling. The increasing sea ice trend appears uninterrupted in the Fram Strait and North Iceland while reaching a maximum ca. 5 ka b2k in the East Greenland region. Sea ice modifications during the last 5000 years display great variability in East Greenland with intermediate conditions between the early and mid Holocene, possibly associated with local fjord dynamics. The last sea ice maximum was reached across all regions 1000 years b2k.
Molecular advances in archaeological and biological research on Atlantic walrus
2021, The Atlantic Walrus: Multidisciplinary Insights into Human-Animal Interactions
Over the last 20 years, the application of molecular tools in biological and archaeological research has increased concurrently with technological advances. This has provided new possibilities for conducting genetic, stable isotope and fatty acid analyses on modern and historical samples, to improve our understanding of Atlantic walrus biology and demography. The use of palaeontological, archaeological and historical remains, moreover, shows great promise for disentangling the impact of anthropogenic effects and environmental change on Atlantic walrus populations. Such analyses have the potential to provide insights on particular aspects of the behavioural ecology, demography and life-history of Atlantic walruses, including changes in the migratory routes, population size, dispersal rates, choice of haul-out sites, foraging/diet and mating behaviour, in response to particular environmental or climatic conditions, as well as past and present human activities such as hunting. From an archaeological and historical point of view, much can also be learned about the role of walruses to past human societies, and even historical ivory trading networks and their links to regional hunting grounds can be reconstructed through time using molecular data from bones and teeth. Gaining these past insights will play a crucial role in designing future conservation and management strategies for Atlantic walruses and ensuring sustainable futures for humans who still rely upon them.
Resolving sea ice dynamics in the north-western Ross Sea during the last 2.6 ka: From seasonal to millennial timescales
2020, Quaternary Science Reviews
Citation Excerpt :
In addition, we note that some of the C. pennatum observed in the current study was present as fragmented frustules. On the other hand, IPSO25 appears sufficiently stable in sediments to permit identification in sediments spanning the Quaternary, at least (Belt, 2018, 2019). The distributions of lithogenic material are also consistent with the biogenic content and associated interpretations of dark and light laminae.
Time-series analyses of satellite images reveal that sea ice extent in the Ross Sea has experienced significant changes over the last 40 years, likely triggered by large-scale atmospheric anomalies. However, resolving how sea ice in the Ross Sea has changed over longer timeframes has until now remained more elusive. Here we used a laminated sediment piston core (14.6 m) collected from the Edisto inlet (Western Ross Sea) to reconstruct fast ice dynamics over the last 2.6 ka. Our goal was to first understand the climate expression of selected well-defined sediment laminae and then use these characteristics for reconstructing past sea ice behaviour across the whole sedimentary sequence. We used the recently established sea ice diatom biomarker proxy IPSO₂₅ in combination with diatom census counts and bulk analyses. Analyses performed on a suite of discrete laminae revealed statistically significant differences between dark and light laminae reflecting different depositional conditions. Based on their respective biogeochemical fingerprints, we infer that dark laminae accumulated during sea ice thaws in early summer. Under these conditions, laminae contain relatively high concentrations of IPSO₂₅ and display an enriched δ¹³C composition for the bulk organic matter (OM). While diatom assemblages in dark laminae are relatively homogenous, as the thaw continues later in the summer, Corethron pennatum becomes the dominant diatom species, resulting in the formation of light laminae characterized by low IPSO₂₅ concentrations. Since C. pennatum can migrate vertically through the water column to uptake nutrients and avoid competition in oligotrophic waters, its high concentration likely reflects stratified and ice-free surface waters typical of late summer.
Down-core trends show that the correlation between sediment brightness and geochemical fingerprint (i.e., IPSO₂₅ and δ¹³C) holds throughout the record. Based on the knowledge gained at lamina level, our down-core high-resolution reconstruction shows that the summer fast ice coverage changed dramatically during the late Holocene. Specifically, we conclude that the Edisto inlet experienced regular early summer opening between 2.6 ka, and ca. 0.7 ka, after which, coastal fast ice persisted during summer months and ice-free conditions became less frequent. Comparison with previous regional ice core data suggests that the sudden cooling recorded over the Victoria Land Coast region since 0.7 ka might potentially explain our observation of persistent summer fast ice in the Western Ross Sea. Our study has shown that multi-proxy data derived from laminated sediments can provide hitherto unknown detail regarding past summer sea ice dynamics in coastal Antarctic regions.
Autoxidation of the sea ice biomarker proxy IPSO <inf>25</inf> in the near-surface oxic layers of Arctic and Antarctic sediments
2019, Organic Geochemistry
Citation Excerpt :
As such, diene II has been proposed as a proxy measure for sea ice in the Southern Ocean, and the term IPSO25 (Ice Proxy for the Southern Ocean with 25 carbon atoms) has been recently proposed (Belt et al., 2016). Although IPSO25 appears to be a common constituent of Antarctic surface sediments (for near-coastal regions, at least; Nichols et al., 1993; Johns et al., 1999; Belt et al., 2016; Belt, 2018, 2019), analysis of IPSO25 in downcore Antarctic archives has so far resulted in only a relatively small number of palaeo sea ice reconstructions, at least in comparison with IP25 for the Arctic (e.g., Collins et al., 2013; Etourneau et al., 2013; Barbara et al., 2016; Campagne et al., 2016; see also Belt, 2018, 2019 for a recent review and summary). Finally, in the Arctic, the ratio IPSO25/IP25 (sometimes referred to as DIP25) has previously been proposed as a possible indicator of variability in sea ice conditions or even of sea surface temperatures (SST) (e.g., Fahl and Stein, 2012; Stein et al., 2012; Cabedo-Sanz et al., 2013).
Over the last decade or so, the mono- and di-unsaturated highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) lipids IP₂₅ (Ice Proxy with 25 carbon atoms) and IPSO₂₅ (Ice Proxy for the Southern Ocean with 25 carbon atoms) have emerged as useful proxies for sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively. A more complete understanding of their respective proxy signatures, however, requires more detailed knowledge of their stability in the water column and in sediments. In the current study, we focused on the autoxidation of IPSO₂₅, first by performing laboratory-based oxidation reactions on a purified sample and characterizing products based on detailed mass spectral analysis. We then analysed for the same oxidation products in near-surface sediments retrieved from the Arctic and the Antarctic, and some suspended organic matter from the Antarctic. Our data show that IPSO₂₅ is susceptible to partial autoxidation within the oxic layers of Arctic and Antarctic sediments, while the same processes appear not to be so important in the water column. Although the number of primary autoxidation reactions identified in sediments was not as large as in laboratory experiments, there was evidence for their subsequent modification by biotic degradation. Quantifying the extent of degradation of IPSO₂₅ and IP₂₅ in sediments, and thus the impact of such process on the use of these biomarkers as paleo sea ice proxies, remains challenging at this stage, since most of the primary oxidation products do not accumulate, likely due to secondary biodegradation reactions. Some interesting differences in reactivity were also observed between IPSO₂₅ and IP₂₅ present in the same Arctic sediments. This suggests that factors other than environmental control may influence the IPSO₂₅/IP₂₅ ratio (i.e. DIP₂₅) in Arctic sediments.
Millennial-scale variations in Arctic sea ice are recorded in sedimentary ancient DNA of the microalga Polarella glacialis
2024, Communications Earth and Environment

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Invited Opinion PaperWhat do IP25 and related biomarkers really reveal about sea ice change?

Abstract

Org. Geochem.

Quat. Sci. Rev.

Org. Geochem.

Quat. Sci. Rev.

Org. Geochem.

Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta

Invited Opinion Paper
What do IP₂₅ and related biomarkers really reveal about sea ice change?