Bering Sea radiolarian biostratigraphy and paleoceanography at IODP Site U1341 during the last four million years

Radiolarian assemblages in sediment cores were investigated at the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1341 on Bowers Ridge in the southern Bering Sea. Radiolarian biozones at Site U1341 spanned the last 4 My from the youngest Amphimelissa setosa Zone (late Quaternary), via the Stylatractus universes Zone, the Eucyrtidium matuyamai Zone and a part of the Cycladophora sakaii Zone (middle to late Pliocene). The A. setosa Zone, newly proposed in this paper, is well correlated with the Botryostrobus aquilonaris Zone in the North Pacific Ocean. The bottom of the S. universus and top of the E. matuyamai Zones are emended in this paper by using the first common occurrence of A. setosa. Seventeen radiolarian datum points were identified at Site U1341 and tied to the geomagnetic and oxygen isotope stratigraphy. Radiolarian assemblages during the last 4 My showed a turnover from subarctic-transitional species (Spongopyle osculosa and Larcopyle buetschlii) to subarctic species (Ceratospyris borealis) between 3.6 and 2.4 Ma, corresponding to the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG). Recent polar species (A. setosa and Actinomma boreale) appeared abundantly after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT, 1.2–0.8 Ma). Repeated numbers of individual peaks of the abundances of Cycladophora davisiana, dwelling in cold and well-ventilated intermediate water, suggest intermediate to deep water formation in the Bering Sea during the last 1 My.