This paper presents the results of a study on a sediment core obtained from the southwestern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. By analyzing the diatoms in the sediment, along with the productivity proxy and ice-rafted debris data, we reconstructed the regional environmental and climatic changes occurring over last 94 kyr (sea-ice expansion, periods of active ice melting, and variations in marine plankton productivity). Local warming and cooling events occurring in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene periods, as well as transgressive-regressive fluctuations in the sea level, were documented. The shift in the relatively warm interglacial conditions to severe glaciation over 34 kyr ago that occurred in the studied area of the Sea of Okhotsk was reported for the first time. The time at which the La Pérouse Strait opened, the Soya Current input began, and the establishment of modern hydrological conditions was approximately 5.6 kyr.
2019. V. 179. Art.no. 102215

Twenty-three species of planktonic Foraminifera have been identified from surface sediments on the Thukela Shelf (KwaZulu-Natal Bight, South Africa). The assemblage is dominated by Orbulina universa, Globigerinoides ruber and Neogloboquadrina dutertrei, and is referred to the tropical-subtropical zone. Surface-water species (Globigerinoides ruber, G. trilobus, G. sacculifer, and G. conglobatus) dominate over deep-water species (Globorotalia inflata, G. tumida, G. menardii, and Sphaeroidinella dehiscens). Identification keys to species of Globorotalia, Globigerina, and Globigerinoides from the KwaZulu-Natal Bight are provided.