The hypothesis of a km-thick ice shelf covering the entire Arctic Ocean during peak glacial conditions was proposed nearly half a century ago. Floating ice shelves preserve few direct traces after their disappearance, making reconstructions difficult. Seafloor imprints of ice shelves should, however, exist where ice grounded along their flow paths. Here we present new evidence of ice-shelf groundings on bathymetric highs in the central Arctic Ocean, resurrecting the concept of an ice shelf extending over the entire central Arctic Ocean during at least one previous ice age. New and previously mapped glacial landforms together reveal flow of a spatially coherent, in some regions >1-km thick, central Arctic Ocean ice shelf dated to marine isotope stage 6 (∼140 ka). Bathymetric highs were likely critical in the ice-shelf development by acting as pinning points where stabilizing ice rises formed, thereby providing sufficient back stress to allow ice shelf thickening.

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Deep sea sediments have in the past decade emerged as a potential sink for microplastics in the marine environment. The discovery of microplastics in various environmental compartments of the Arctic Central Basin (ACB) suggested that these contaminants were potentially being transported to the deep-sea realm of this oceanic basin. For the first time, the present study conducted a preliminary assessment to determine whether microplastics were present in surficial sediments from the ACB. Gravity and piston corers were used to retrieve sediments from depths of 855 -4353 m at 11 sites in the ACB during the Arctic Ocean 2016 (AO16) expedition. Surficial sediments from the various cores were subjected to density flotation with sodium tungstate dihydrate solution (Na2WO4.2H2O, density 1.4 g cm -3 ). Potential microplastics were isolated and analysed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Of the surficial samples, 7 of the 11 samples contained synthetic polymers which included polyester (n = 3), polystyrene (n = 2), 2 polyacrylonitrile (n = 1), polypropylene (n = 1), polyvinyl chloride (n = 1) and polyamide (n = 1). Fibres (n = 5) and fragments (n = 4) were recorded in the samples. In order to avoid misinterpretation, these findings must be taken in the context that (i) sampling equipment did not guarantee retrieval of undisturbed surficial sediments, (ii) low sample volumes were analysed (~ 10 g per site), (iii) replicate sediment samples per site was not possible, (iv) no air contamination checks were included during sampling and, (v) particles <100 µm were automatically excluded from analysis. While the present study provides some preliminary indication that microplastics may be accumulating in the deep-sea realm of the ACB, further work is necessary to assess microplastic abundance, distribution and composition in surficial sediments of the ACB.

Abstract. Continental slopes north of the East Siberian Sea potentially hold large amounts of methane (CH 4 ) in sediments as gas hydrate and free gas. Although release of this CH 4 to the ocean and atmosphere has become a topic of discussion, the region remains sparingly explored. Here we present pore water chemistry results from 32 sediment cores taken during Leg 2 of the 2014 joint Swedish-Russian-US Arctic Ocean Investigation of Climate-Cryosphere-Carbon Interactions (SWERUS-C3) expedition. The cores come from depth transects across the slope and rise extending between the Mendeleev and the Lomonosov ridges, north of Wrangel Island and the New Siberian Islands, respectively. Upward CH 4 flux towards the seafloor, as inferred from profiles of dissolved sulfate (SO 2− 4 ), alkalinity, and the δ 13 C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), is negligible at all stations east of 143 • E longitude. In the upper 8 m of these cores, downward SO 2− 4 flux never exceeds 6.2 mol m −2 kyr −1 , the upward alkalinity flux never exceeds 6.8 mol m −2 kyr −1 , and δ 13 C composition of DIC (δ 13 C-DIC) only moderately decreases with depth (−3.6 ‰ m −1 on average). Moreover, upon addition of Zn acetate to pore water samples, ZnS did not precipitate, indicating a lack of dissolved H 2 S. Phosphate, ammonium, and metal profiles reveal that metal oxide reduction by organic carbon dominates the geochemical environment and supports very low organic carbon turnover rates. A single core on the Lomonosov Ridge differs, as diffusive fluxes for SO 2− 4 and alkalinity were 13.9 and 11.3 mol m −2 kyr −1 , respectively, the δ 13 C-DIC gradient was 5.6 ‰ m −1 , and Mn 2+ reduction terminated within 1.3 m of the seafloor. These are among the first pore water results generated from this vast climatically sensitive region, and they imply that abundant CH 4 , including gas hydrates, do not characterize the East Siberian Sea slope or rise along the investigated depth transects. This contradicts previous modeling and discussions, which due to the lack of data are almost entirely based on assumption.