DETAILED PHOSPHORUS GEOCHEMISTRY FROM THE BERING SEA

The Bering Sea is a deep water basin in the subarctic north Pacific characterized by restricted exchange with the open ocean during times of low sea level. On glacial/interglacial time scales, the Bering Sea is a region of great interest because it is an important area of intermediate water formation. In addition, it is a high nutrient low chlorophyll setting with a nearby dust source and reported lower glacial productivity and higher nitrate consumption (Brunelle et al., 2007).

Ninety six samples from HLY0202- JPC17 were collected at a 2 cm resolution for the last 160 thousand years for analysis using a sequential extraction technique to determine detailed phosphorus geochemistry (SEDEX) following the method of Ruttenberg (1992) with modifications by Anderson and Delaney (2000) and Latimer et al. (2006). HLY0202- JPC17 was recovered from the central Bering Sea on the southwestern flank of Bowers Ridge (53.9N, 178.7E, 2209 m water depth). This core was selected because it demonstrates well constrained sedimentology and stratigraphy and the availability of other published indicators of paleoproductivity and nutrient utilization (i.e. N isotopes, biogenic Ba, biogenic opal). P analyses are ongoing, but data will be compared with other proxies to evaluate export production at the site.