ABSTRACT: Foraminiferal proxies for Late Holocene paleo-sea ice andpaleoceanographic conditions in the Amundsen Gulf and Viscount Melville Sound.

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Abstract

Sea ice extent and its response to warming throughout the Arctic varies spatially, requiring regional, high resolution investigations to determine paleo-sea ice patterns paleoceanographic conditions. Changes in the abundance and composition of foraminiferal assemblages within the Amundsen Gulf and Viscount Melville Sound allow some reconstruction of the dynamics of paleo-sea ice cover within the Western Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Northwest Passage during the late Holocene. The Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) and ArcticNet have collected sediment cores and surface samples from 2002 to 2006 in the Beaufort Sea, Amundsen Gulf and the interstitial waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In the summer of 2004, five boxcores were collected along a transect through the Amundsen Gulf. These cores range from 15 to 35 cm in length, and were collected from depths of 172 to 569 m. Two of the cores are correlated chronostratigraphically with radiocarbon AMS ages. The foraminiferal assemblages demonstrate increased amounts of sea ice from approximately 1000 to 1400 cal years BP, decreasing to seasonally open waters by approximately 300 cal years BP, assuming constant sedimentation rates. One core was colleted from the Viscount Melville Sound. It revealed a different foraminiferal assemblage than the cores from the Amundsen Gulf, indicating different water masses were passing through the North West Passage. These paleoceanographic records may also provide insights on the spatial and temporal variability of the Cape Bathurst Polynya, and how this region will respond to continued changes in climate.

Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology