Takuya Sagawa

Construction of perfectly continuous records of physical properties for dark-light sediment sequences collected from the Japan Sea during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 346 and their potential utilities as paleoceanographic studies

AbstractEstablishment of sedimentary sequence is essential for the interpretation of the sedimentary records. Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition (Exp.) 346 drilled high-quality sediment archives with more than three holes each at nine sites that enable us to establish continuous sedimentary sequences through splicing technique. After extensive efforts to replace the disturbed, missed, or duplicated intervals found in spliced sediment sequences constructed onboard during IODP Exp. 346 to the corresponding undisturbed intervals, nearly perfectly continuous sediment columns and physical property records for the Pleistocene intervals of Sites U1422-U1427 and U1430 collected from the Japan Sea have been established. Same kind of efforts to correct the shipboard splices were also achieved for Plio-Miocene intervals at Sites U1425 and U1430. The continuous records established for these sites will allow a much more detailed understanding of the long-term variability in East Asian paleoclimate and North Pacific oceanography.

Evolution of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre during the past 190 kyr through the interaction of the Kuroshio Current with the surface and intermediate waters

The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) has two important functions, i.e., one in ocean-heat transfer and another as a driving force for circulation of the surface and intermediate waters on the basin scale. In the present study, we describe records of the vertical thermal structures and distributions of water masses in the upper ocean of the subtropical northwest (NW) Pacific for the past 190 kyr, using two sediment cores collected from the Kuroshio Current area in the East China Sea and the NPSG area. During the two glacial periods, the Kuroshio Current was weakened owing to changes in ocean–atmosphere circulation and eustasy. The differences in the Mg/Ca-derived temperatures between surface and thermocline waters show the changes of depth and temperature (warming) of thermocline during glacial periods. Conversely, the planktonic foraminiferal assemblages demonstrate that the indicator of the intermediate water from the central area of the NPSG increased synchronously with thermocline warming during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. These results suggest that warm intermediate water strongly affected the changes in the water-column structure of the subtropical NW Pacific during MIS 6. However, during MIS 2, cold water had precedence over intermediate water probably owing to the southward shift of the subtropical front associated with the reduced transport of the Kuroshio Current. Thus, the NPSG has evolved differently during the two glacial periods (MIS 2 and MIS 6) through interactions between the Kuroshio Current, surface water, and intermediate water.

East Asian Monsoon History and Paleoceanography of the Japan Sea Over the Last 460,000 Years

The Japan Sea is directly influenced by the Asian monsoon, a system that transports moisture and heat across southeast Asia during the boreal summer, and is a major driver of the Earths ocean-atmospheric circulation. Foraminiferal and facies analyses of a 460-kyr record from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 346 Site U1427 in the Japan Sea reveal a record of nutrient flux and oxygenation that varied due to sea level and East Asian monsoon intensity. The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) was most intense during marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e, MIS 7e, MIS 9e, and MIS 11c when the Tsushima Warm Current flowed into an unrestricted well-mixed normal salinity Japan Sea, whereas East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) conditions dominated MIS 2, MIS 4, MIS 6, and MIS 8 when sea level minima restricted the Japan Sea resulting in low-salinity and oxygen conditions in the absence of Tsushima flow. Reduced oxygen stratified, low-salinity, and higher productivity oceanic conditions characterize Terminations TV, TIII, TII, and TI when East China Sea coastal waters breached the Tsushima Strait. Chinese loess, cave, and Lake Biwa (Japan) and U1427 proxy records suggest EASM intensification during low to high insolation transitions, whereas the strongest EAWM prevailed during lowest insolation periods or high to low insolation transitions. Ice sheet/CO 2 forcing leads to the strongest EAWM events in glacials and enhanced EASM in interglacials. Mismatches between proxy patterns suggest that latitudinal and land/sea thermal contrasts played a role in East Asian monsoon variability, suggesting that a complex interplay between ice sheet dynamics, insolation, and thermal gradients controls monsoonal intensity.