Environmental evolution of the southern Chukchi Sea in the Holocene

The molluscan shells from three drill and two piston cores obtained in the southern Russian sector of the Chukchi Sea are dated by the AMS 14 C measurement method back to 0.8–3.5 and 9.2–10.5 ka. The period of 9–10 ka was marked by increased sedimentation rates related to the transgression onset. The fossils in the lower Holocene section exhibit the successive upward replacement of brackish-water organisms by their marine counterparts. After the opening of the Bering Strait in the middle Holocene, the sedimentation was under influence of the increased bioproductivity of the waters. The climatic optimum in the Chukotka region corresponds to the early Holocene, while the late Holocene was characterized by the wider development of the ice cover on the shelf.