Provenance evolution since Middle Holocene of the sediments on the East Siberian shelf: Evidence from elemental geochemistry

The Arctic region is very sensitive to global climate change. It is a key area in the world to the study of paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes. The East Siberian Sea (ESS) is one of the important marginal seas in the Arctic region. Study of the sediment provenance of the ESS shelf is essential to the overall understanding of the Arctic environmental and climatic changes. Based on the analyzing results of the major, trace and rare earth elements from the core of LV77-36, this paper described the change patterns of concerned indices with time, discussed the variation of detrital components in the ESS sediments since Middle Holocene, and finally, revealed the response of provenance evolution to paleoenvironment changes. The results show that since Middle Holocene, the sediments of the core LV77-36 are mainly coming from the suspended materials carried by the Lena, Indigirka, Yana and Mackenzie rivers, in addition to the coastal erosive materials from the Siberian platform and New Siberian Islands. According to the Comparison with other paleoclimatic parameters, it is found that the changes of sea ice and ocean currents have important effects on the dispersion and deposition of sediments on the East Siberia shelf. In Late Holocene, due to the increase in sea ice in the Chukchi Sea, the weakening of the Siberian coastal current and the strengthening of the Beaufort circulation, the material contributed by the North American end member increased slightly compared to the Middle Holocene sediments.