Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), including both the archaeal isoprenoid GDGTs (isoGDGTs) and the bacterial branched GDGTs (brGDGTs), have been used in paleoclimate studies to reconstruct temperature in marine and terrestrial archives. However, GDGTs are present in many different types of environments, with relative abundances that strongly depend on the depositional setting. This suggests that GDGT distributions can be used more broadly to infer paleoenvironments in the geological past. In this study, we analyzed 1153 samples from a variety of modern sedimentary settings for both isoGDGT and brGDGTs. We used machine learning on the GDGT relative abundances from this dataset to relate the lipid distributions to the physical and chemical characteristics of the depositional settings. We observe a robust relationship between the depositional environment and the lipid distribution profiles of our samples. This dataset was used to train and test the Branched and Isoprenoid GDGT Machine learning Classification algorithm (BIGMaC), which identifies the environment a sample comes from based on the distribution of GDGTs with high accuracy. We tested the model on the sedimentary record from the Giraffe kimberlite pipe, an Eocene maar in subantarctic Canada, and found that the BIGMaC reconstruction agrees with independent stratigraphic information, provides new information about the paleoenvironment of this site, and helps improve paleotemperature reconstruction. In cases where paleoenvironments are unknown or are changing, BIGMaC can be applied in concert with other proxies to generate more refined paleoclimatic records.

A series of transient global warming events (“hyperthermals”) in the early Eocene is marked by massive environmental and carbon cycle change. Among these events, the impacts of the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (~56 Ma), Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (~54 Ma) and Eocene Thermal Maximum 3 (~53 Ma) are relatively well documented, but much less is known on the many later hyperthermals that apparently occurred on orbital eccentricity maxima until at least the end of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO; ~53­–49 Ma). Here, at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 959 (Equatorial Atlantic Ocean), we report a large negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) in both organic and carbonate substrates that we correlate to the “V” event sensu Lauretano et al. (2016) (or C22nH1 sensu Sexton et al. (2011)) at ~49.7 Ma, following combined bio- and chemostratigraphic constraints. Through TEX86 paleothermometry, we reconstruct a sea surface temperature rise of 1.1–1.9 ºC associated with this CIE, which, combined with evidence for warming from the deep sea, implies that this event indeed represents a transient global warming episode like the earlier hyperthermals. Organic walled dinoflagellate cyst assemblages indicate a productive paleoceanographic background setting, likely through regional upwelling, which alternated with episodes of stratification. Warming reconstructed across V at Site 959 is relatively similar to the higher-latitude-derived deep ocean reconstructions. However, the presence of upwelling and its variable intensity across the event compromises the use of the reconstructed warming as an estimate for the complete tropical band.

We explore the imprint of orbital variability on Arctic temperature and hydrology using sediments recovered during the Arctic Coring Expedition in 2004. High resolution records of lipid biomarkers (GDGTs; 2-kyr) and palynological assemblages (5-kyr) in the ~4 m interval below Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (~54 Ma) show highly cyclic signals related to ~20-kyr precession, ~40-kyr obliquity and ~100-kyr eccentricity. The GDGTs indicate obliquity and precession variability representative of sea surface temperature (SST) variations up to ~1.4 and ~0.5 ºC, respectively. Peak SSTs coincide with an elevated supply of pollen and spores and increased marine productivity. Together, this implies an orbital control on precipitation and terrestrial nutrient supply to the Arctic Basin. Assuming that SST maxima correspond to Arctic insolation maxima (precession minima/obliquity maxima), precipitation maxima also correspond to insolation maxima, implying regional hydrological processes as a forcing rather than variations in meridional water transport, starkly contrasting Pleistocene Arctic hydrology. The relative amplitudes of precession and obliquity in the SST record match that of local insolation between spring and fall, corroborating previous suggestions of a seasonal GDGT bias. The reconstructed complete orbital imprint refutes that ACEX temperature reconstructions are biased to one end of the orbital variability. Eccentricity-related SST variability was ~0.8 ºC, ~2–3 times higher than synchronous variability in the deep ocean, and 3–4 times higher than similar variations in the tropics. This confirms eccentricity-forced global temperature variability during the Eocene, and that this had pronounced polar amplification, despite the absence of ice and snow albedo feedbacks.

A document by Evi Wubben. Click on the document to view its contents.

Some lipid-biomarker-based sea surface temperature (SST) proxies applied in the modern Mediterranean Sea exhibit large offsets from expected values, generating uncertainties in climate reconstructions. Lateral transport of proxy carriers along ocean currents prior to burial can contribute to this offset between reconstructed and expected SSTs above the burial site and at the particle’s origin in the surface ocean. We perform virtual particle tracking experiments to simulate transport during sinking and derive a quantitative estimate of transport bias for alkenones and glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), which form the basis of the UK’37 and TEX86 paleothermometers, respectively. We use sinking speeds appropriate for the export of various proxy carriers (6, 12, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, and 1000 m d-1). For the assessed sinking speeds, lateral transport bias is generally small (always <0.75 °C) within the Mediterranean Sea and does not substantially contribute to the uncertainties in UK’37- or TEX86-based SSTs.

To assess zonal temperature and biogeographical patterns in the Paleogene of the Southern Ocean, we present new multi-proxy air and sea surface temperature data for the latest Paleocene (~57–56 Ma) and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ~56 Ma) from the northern margin of the Australo-Antarctic Gulf (AAG). The various proxies document the well-known late Paleocene gradual warming and, superimposed, two late Paleocene pre-cursor warming events, hundreds of kyrs prior to the PETM. Remarkably, however, air and sea surface temperature reconstructions for the AAG and SW Pacific during the latest Paleocene, PETM and Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (~53–49 Ma) show similar trends and, within proxies, similar absolute temperatures. The record implies that the exceptional warmth previously recorded in the SW Pacific extended westward into the AAG. This contrasts with the modeled circulation and temperature patterns. We suggest that simulations of ocean circulation underestimate heat transport in the SW Pacific due insufficient resolution, not allowing for mesoscale eddy-related heat transport. We argue for a systematic approach to tackle model and proxy biases in marginal marine settings, including assessment of underexplored factors as high-latitude proxy mechanisms to confidently assess temperature in these non-analogue climates.