Introduction to Pliocene–Pleistocene paleoceanography of the Bering Sea

High resolution paleoceanography of the Pliocene–Pleistocene is important in understanding climate forcing mechanisms and associated environmental changes during this major transition from global warmth to the Ice Ages. This is particularly true in high latitude marginal seas such as the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea has been very sensitive to changes in global climate during interglacial and glacial, or Milankovitch, time scales. This is due to significant changes in water circulation, land–ocean interaction, and sea-ice formation. With the aim to reveal the climate and oceanographic history of the Bering Sea over the past 5 My, IODP Expedition 323 cored a total of 5741 m of sediment (97.4% recovery) at seven sites in 2009 on D/V JOIDES Resolution covering three regions: the Umnak Plateau, the Bowers Ridge, and the Bering Slope. The water depths of the drill sites range from 818 m to 3174 m, allowing for the characterization of past vertical water mass distribution including changes in the oxygen minimum zone. The four deepest holes range from 600 m to 745 m below the seafloor, and resulted in the recovery of long sediment sequences ranging from 1.9 My to 5 My in age. Following the expedition, two sampling parties at Kochi Core Center (for acquisition of ca. 58,000 subsamples) and two scientific meetings were conducted in order to proceed with the analyses of sediment core samples and discussions. Here, pertinent results, primarily from IODP Expedition 323, are consolidated as a single special volume of Deep-Sea Research Part II Topical Studies in Oceanography.