Abstract. The Beaufort Gyre (BG) and the Bering Strait inflow (BSI) are important elements of the Arctic Ocean circulation system and major controls on the distribution of Arctic sea ice. We report records of the quartz / feldspar and chlorite / illite ratios in three sediment cores from the northern Chukchi Sea, providing insights into the long-term dynamics of the BG circulation and the BSI during the Holocene. The quartz / feldspar ratio, interpreted as a proxy of the BG strength, gradually decreased during the Holocene, suggesting a long-term decline in the BG strength, consistent with an orbitally controlled decrease in summer insolation. We propose that the BG rotation weakened as a result of the increasing stability of sea-ice cover at the margins of the Canada Basin, driven by decreasing insolation. Millennial to multi-centennial variability in the quartz / feldspar ratio (the BG circulation) is consistent with fluctuations in solar irradiance, suggesting that solar activity affected the BG strength on these timescales. The BSI approximation by the chlorite / illite record, despite a considerable geographic variability, consistently shows intensified flow from the Bering Sea to the Arctic during the middle Holocene, which is attributed primarily to the effect of higher atmospheric pressure over the Aleutian Basin. The intensified BSI was associated with decrease in sea-ice concentrations and increase in marine production, as indicated by biomarker concentrations, suggesting a major influence of the BSI on sea-ice and biological conditions in the Chukchi Sea. Multi-century to millennial fluctuations, presumably controlled by solar activity, were also identified in a proxy-based BSI record characterized by the highest age resolution.

Two new secondary metabolites, svalbamides A (1) and B (2), were isolated from a culture extract of Paenibacillus sp. SVB7 that was isolated from surface sediment from a core (HH17-1085) taken in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The combinational analysis of HR-MS and NMR spectroscopic data revealed the structures of 1 and 2 as being lipopeptides bearing 3-amino-2-pyrrolidinone, d-valine, and 3-hydroxy-8-methyldecanoic acid. The absolute configurations of the amino acid residues in svalbamides A and B were determined using the advanced Marfey’s method, in which the hydrolysates of 1 and 2 were derivatized with l- and d- forms of 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrophenyl-5-alanine amide (FDAA). The absolute configurations of 1 and 2 were completely assigned by deducing the stereochemistry of 3-hydroxy-8-methyldecanoic acid based on DP4 calculations. Svalbamides A and B induced quinone reductase activity in Hepa1c1c7 murine hepatoma cells, indicating that they represent chemotypes with a potential for functioning as chemopreventive agents.

The response of Arctic Ocean biogeochemistry to subsurface flow driven by permafrost thaw is poorly understood. We present dissolved chloride and water isotopic data from the Chukchi Sea Shelf sediments that reveal the presence of a meteoric subsurface flow enriched in cations with a radiogenic Sr fingerprint. This subsurface fluid is also enriched in dissolved inorganic carbon and methane that bear isotopic compositions indicative of a carbon reservoir modified by reactions in a closed system. Such fluid characteristics are in stark contrast with those from other sites in the Chukchi Sea where the pore water composition shows no sign of meteoric input, but reflect typical biogeochemical reactions associated with early diagenetic sequences in marine sediment. The most likely source of the observed subsurface flow at the Chukchi Sea Shelf is from the degradation of permafrost that had extended to the shelf region during the Last Glacial Maximum. Our data suggest that the permafrost‐driven subsurface flow most likely took place during the 2–3°C warming in the Early Holocene Thermal Maximum. This time scale is supported by numerical simulation of pore water profiles, which indicate that a minimum of several thousand years must have passed since the cessation of the subsurface methane‐bearing fluid flow.

Sediment samples from the East China and Yellow seas collected adjacent to continental China were found to have lower δN values (expressed as δN = [N:N/N:N - 1] × 1000‰; the sediment N:N ratio relative to the air nitrogen N:N ratio). In contrast, the Arctic sediments from the Chukchi Sea, the sampling region furthest from China, showed higher δN values (2-3‰ higher than those representing the East China and the Yellow sea sediments). Across the sites sampled, the levels of sediment δN increased with increasing distance from China, which is broadly consistent with the decreasing influence of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) resulting from fossil fuel combustion and fertilizer use. We concluded that, of several processes, the input of N appears to be emerging as a new driver of change in the sediment δN value in marginal seas adjacent to China. The present results indicate that the effect of N has extended beyond the ocean water column into the deep sedimentary environment, presumably via biological assimilation of N followed by deposition. Further, the findings indicate that N is taking over from the conventional paradigm of nitrate flux from nitrate-rich deep water as the primary driver of biological export production in this region of the Pacific Ocean.

It has been known that continental shelves around the Arctic Ocean play a major role in the ventilation of the deep basins as a consequence of shelf-basin exchange. In the present study, we found that bacterial assemblage of the surface sediment was different from that of seawater while seawater harboured local bacterial assemblages in response to the Arctic hydrography. This finding suggests that the Arctic seafloor sediments may have distinctive bacterial biogeography. Moreover, the distribution of bacterial assemblages and physicochemical properties in surface sediments changed gradually from the Arctic continental shelf to deep-sea basin. Based on the results, bacterial biogeography in the Arctic seafloor sediments may be influenced by winnowing and re-deposition of surface sediments through the sediment gravity flow. The present study offers a deeper understanding of shelf convection and its role for the construction of bacterial assemblages in the Arctic Ocean.