LA-ICP-MS data from three different experiments including five foraminiferal species: Ammonia confertitesta (Bourgenuf, France), Bulimina marginata, Cassidulina laevigata (Gullmard Fjord, Sweden), Amphistegina lessonii and Operculina ammonoides (Eilat, Israel). Foraminifera were cultured at different oxygen concentrations (30% and 100% oxygen saturation). Element to calcium ratio (E/Ca) and partition coefficients (D) of Mg, Mn and Sr are noted for individual laser ablation measurements per specimen.
The dataset includes foraminiferal geochemistry and assemblage data, and pore water oxygen isotopes. The samples were collected during IODP Expedition 347 from Site M0059, located in the southern section of the Little Belt in the Baltic Sea. We have measured trace element concentrations (by LA-ICP-MS), oxygen and carbon isotopes of foraminiferal calcite, and fauna assemblage, for reconstruction of past environmental conditions over the past ~7.5 thousand years. We have also measured pore water oxygen isotopes from the same site. In the dataset we also present the trace element concentrations of foraminiferal calcite from IODP347 Site M0059 measured by solution-based ICP-OES. In addition, we include the measurement of water column salinity and oxygen isotopes data from cruise MSM 50 between the Skagerrak and the southern Baltic Sea.
The southern margin of the Barberton Greenstone Belt in Eswatini limits one of the world’s oldest well-preserved sedimentary and volcanic sequences, 3.57 to 3.2 Ga old. In a segment along that margin, older mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks were thrust over the youngest strata (quartz-rich sandstones and conglomerates) before being folded and imbricated in thrust slices. Samples described in this publication comprise tabular data of (1) sample locations and crystallization ages of zircons which were extracted from thin tuffaceous units in the thrust sheet, (2) analytical data from laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), supporting these ages, and (3) quantitative measurements of ductily deformed conglomerate clasts. Field data were collected 2012-2019; U-Pb analyses performed in 2020. The data presented here are the basis for geological maps and cross sections, and are visualized as concordia diagrams form part of in the related publication (Heubeck et al.. 2023).
Deoxygenation affects many continental shelf seas across the world today and results in increasing areas of hypoxia (dissolved oxygen concentration ([O2]) <1.4 ml/L). The Baltic Sea is increasingly affected by deoxygenation. Deoxygenation correlates with other environmental variables such as changing water temperature and salinity and is directly linked to ongoing global climate change. To place the ongoing environmental changes into a larger context and to further understand the complex Baltic Sea history and its impact on North Atlantic climate, we investigated a high accumulation‐rate brackish‐marine sediment core from the Little Belt (Site M0059), Danish Straits, NW Europe, retrieved during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 347. We combined benthic foraminiferal geochemistry, faunal assemblages, and pore water stable isotopes to reconstruct seawater conditions (e.g., oxygenation, temperature, and salinity) over the past 7.7 thousand years (ka). Bottom water salinity in the Little Belt reconstructed from modeled pore water oxygen isotope data increased between 7.7 and 7.5 ka BP as a consequence of the transition from freshwater to brackish‐marine conditions. Salinity decreased gradually (from 30 to 24) from 4.1 to ~2.5 ka BP. By using the trace elemental composition (Mg/Ca, Mn/Ca, and Ba/Ca) and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes of foraminiferal species Elphidium selseyensis and E. clavatum, we identified that generally warming and hypoxia occurred between about 7.5 and 3.3 ka BP, approximately coinciding in time with the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM). These changes of bottom water conditions were coupled to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and relative sea level change.