Leanne K. Armand

The rapidly melting Totten Glacier of East Antarctica drains a basin containing ~3.5 m sea-level rise equivalent of ice, but the Totten Glacier dynamics and interaction with the Southern Ocean since the Last Glacial Maximum is not well understood. To better understand the response of the glacier to present and future climate changes, an accurate reconstruction of the retreat history of the Totten Glacier is needed. Hence, this study uses a multiproxy approach in analyzing beryllium isotopes, the first such record from this location, and grain size of a sediment core collected from the continental slope adjacent to Totten Glacier. The results, when evaluated together with nearby proxy records, reveal that the initial deglaciation of the Totten Glacier sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet began at ~18 ka BP. The rapid deglaciation from ~9 ka BP that followed is assumed to be caused by the intrusion of modified Circumpolar Deep Water to the grounding zone of the Totten Glacier. This intrusion may also be coupled with a weaker Antarctic Slope Current and southward shift of Antarctic easterlies. This result contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the dynamical response of marine-terminating glaciers to climate variability during the last deglaciation.

The rapidly thinning Totten Glacier on the Sabrina Coast, East Antarctica, is the primary drainage outlet for ice within the Aurora Subglacial Basin, which could destabilize under the current atmospheric warming trend. There is growing need for direct geological evidence from the Sabrina Coast to frame late twentieth century Totten melting in the context of past warm climate analogs. Addressing this need, sediment archives were recovered from two sites on the Sabrina Coast slope and rise that record changes in terrigenous sedimentation and primary productivity in the region over glacial cycles since the mid‐Pleistocene transition (MPT). This research presents physical properties, grain size, diatom abundance and assemblages, and geochemical analysis from the two sites to determine how the processes that control sedimentation change between glacial and interglacial phases. The stratigraphic sequences in both cores record cyclic variations in physical properties and diatom abundances, which radiocarbon and biostratigraphic chronologies reveal as 100 Kyr glacial‐interglacial cyclicity. During glacials, terrigenous sediment deposition is enhanced by advanced grounded ice on the shelf, while primary productivity is restricted due to permanent summer sea ice extending past the continental slope. During interglacials, pelagic sedimentation suggests high surface productivity associated with contractions of regional sea ice cover. Comparison with post‐MPT slope records from Wilkes Land and the Amundsen Sea shows that this pattern is consistent in slope sediments around the margin. The higher‐amplitude variations in Antarctic ice volume and sea ice extent post‐MPT ensure that these signals are pervasive around the Antarctic margin.

The geology of Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, is masked by kilometers of ice and remains largely unexplored. Defining the sediment provenance adjacent to this hidden region is important for distinguishing the proximal subglacial basement terranes and refining the dynamic regional glaciological history. This study presents a detrital sediment provenance record spanning c. 23.5 ka from the continental slope of central Wilkes Land. Sediment provenance was characterized using U‐Pb geochronology and trace element geochemistry from detrital zircon, titanite and apatite, and Pb isotopic signatures from detrital feldspar. These data were compared with new feldspar Pb‐isotopic signatures and existing U‐Pb zircon data sets from rare nearby coastal outcrop. A principally igneous source was revealed with dominant age populations between c. 1,360‐1,100 Ma and c. 1,620‐1,490 Ma, characteristic of rocks of the proximal Wilkes and Banzare provinces, respectively. Minor detritus was additionally sourced from the proximal Nuyina Province (c. 1,450‐1,390 Ma). Temporal variation in the climate and ice sheet configuration are likely responsible for subtle downcore changes observed in detrital sediment provenance. High sedimentation rates during the glacial period suggest reworking of continental shelf sediments and downslope transport in debris flows during ice sheet advance. Glacial meltwater fluxes fed largely by the Totten Glacier were responsible for supplying detritus during deglaciation. During interglacials, detritus was derived from a broad coastal region and delivered to the slope via multiple glacial outlets. These results present the first substantial offshore evidence to support recent interpretations that the subglacial crust of central Wilkes Land has a dominantly Mesoproterozoic history.

Analysis of multichannel seismic profiles collected on the continental rise off the Sabrina Coast, East Antarctica, has allowed the determination of the acoustic features that are indicative of major evolution steps of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) and highlights the role of meltwater that originated from Totten Glacier in shaping the margin architecture. The arrival of marine-terminating glaciers into the coastal region was recorded by an enhanced sediment input on the continental rise and the nucleation of channel-levees. Downslope sedimentary processes were dominant throughout the Late Cenozoic, testifying to the progressive growth of a highly dynamic, temperate ice sheet on the continent. The last evolutionary step marks the transition to when a full polar glacial regime occurred. The development of a prograding wedge with steeply dipping foresets on the continental shelf and slope exemplifies sedimentation at this time. Other sub-sea-floor observations indicate that downslope fluxes, triggered by glacial meltwater, were still able to deeply erode and deliver sediments to the rise area. This study's findings have led to the identification of expanded and well-preserved sedimentary successions, which we suggest should be considered as priority targets for future International Ocean Discovery Program deep drilling due to the sensitivity of the ice sheet in this area.

Some aspects of the life cycle of the Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis have been investigated previously, but many of its details have not been surveyed in nature. We investigated material from a two-year sediment trap time series by high-throughput imaging and image analysis, looking for morphometric signals of life cycle stages. Valve length distributions appeared close to unimodal but positively (right-) skewed. Size cohorts resulting from synchronized sexual reproduction events were not clearly distinguishable. Nevertheless, based on changes in valve length distributions, we found three general seasonal phases. These corresponded to periods of proliferation (with higher proportions of smaller cells during late spring/early summer), cessation of growth (relative loss of smaller cells during late summer/early autumn), and overwintering (little change in size distributions, with an increased proportion of large cells). We discuss possible causes of these signals, and their relevance to growth, sexual activity and adaption to environmental conditions, such as grazing pressures and the need for an overwintering strategy.

Semiautomated methods for microscopic image acquisition, image analysis, and taxonomic identification have repeatedly received attention in diatom analysis. Less well studied is the question whether and how such methods might prove useful for clarifying the delimitation of species that are difficult to separate for human taxonomists. To try to answer this question, three very similar Fragilariopsis species endemic to the Southern Ocean were targeted in this study: F. obliquecostata, F. ritscheri, and F. sublinearis. A set of 501 extended focus depth specimen images were obtained using a standardized, semiautomated microscopic procedure. Twelve diatomists independently identified these specimen images in order to reconcile taxonomic opinions and agree upon a taxonomic gold standard. Using image analyses, we then extracted morphometric features representing taxonomic characters of the target taxa. The discriminating ability of individual morphometric features was tested visually and statistically, and multivariate classification experiments were performed to test the agreement of the quantitatively defined taxa assignments with expert consensus opinion. Beyond an updated differential diagnosis of the studied taxa, our study also shows that automated imaging and image analysis procedures for diatoms are coming close to reaching a broad applicability for routine use.