Seasonal Changes in Marine Archaeal Tetraether Lipid Export Depth Linked to Net Primary Productivity

Addison Rice; Eunmi Park; Gesine Mollenhauer; Daisy Bouwmans; Anouk van Boxtel; Gert J. de Lange; Ryan Paul; Francesca Sangiorgi; Ryan Smulders; Jan Berend Stuut; Martin Ziegler; Appy Sluijs; Francien Peterse

doi:10.1029/2025PA005141

Seasonal Changes in Marine Archaeal Tetraether Lipid Export Depth Linked to Net Primary Productivity

Addison Rice^*
, Eunmi Park
, Gesine Mollenhauer
, Daisy Bouwmans
, Anouk van Boxtel
, Gert J. de Lange
, Ryan Paul
, Francesca Sangiorgi
, Ryan Smulders
, Jan Berend Stuut
, Martin Ziegler
, Appy Sluijs
, Francien Peterse

^*Corresponding author for this work

Earth and Climate

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Marine ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) produce isoprenoid glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) which form the basis of seawater temperature proxy TEX₈₆. Although most studies use TEX₈₆ for sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions, maximum GDGT production occurs at and below the nitracline. Moreover, sedimentary GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values >5 reflect GDGT contributions of a deeper dwelling (>100 m) clade of AOA, fueling debate on export mechanisms and the water depth of TEX₈₆ proxy sensitivity. We investigate subseasonal variations in GDGT export depth using 4 new and 19 previously published marine sediment trap records and compare results to real-time biogeochemical and physical hindcast/reanalysis model outputs. Due to the complexity of the biological pump and the often short time series of sediment trap records, no globally consistent pattern emerges. However, GDGT-2/GDGT-3 ratios imply seasonal changes in GDGT export depth, and often correlate to changes in the depth (negative) or intensity (positive) of maximum net primary production (NPP). Increased/shallower maximum NPP also correlate positively with GDGT flux at several sites, indicating that NPP exerts a strong control on GDGT origin depth. Mechanistically, increased/shallower maximum NPP incorporates relatively more shallow clade GDGTs into sinking particles, leading to lower GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values. Additionally, GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values correlate with TEX₈₆ in most sediment traps, suggesting that, on sub-annual timescales, mixing of shallow and deep-clade derived GDGTs rather than SST changes causes variations in TEX₈₆. TEX₈₆-based temperatures are up to 0.5°C lower per unit increase in GDGT-2/GDGT-3, but the North Atlantic deviates from this global trend with a positive correlation.

Original language	English
Article number	e2025PA005141
Pages (from-to)	1-21
Number of pages	21
Journal	Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
Volume	41
Issue number	2
Early online date	5 Feb 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005141
Publication status	Published - Feb 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2026. The Author(s).

Funding

We thank K. Nierop, D. Eefting, M. Hoorweg, and J. Hefter for their assistance in the lab; NIOZ and technical team for mooring and recovery of sediment traps in Eastern Mediterranean, and P. van Santvoort and his team for sample splitting on board; B. van der Veen for analysis of Ross Sea samples; G. Fischer for deploying and recovering sediment traps at WTSA1 and WTSA2; Leonardo Langone, Lucilla Capotondi, and Mariangela Ravaioli for deploying and recovering the RS sediment trap and CNR-ISMAR Bologna is thanked for providing the Ross Sea sediment trap samples. This work was carried out under the program of the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC), financially supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie, grant agreement No 847504 and from the Clusters of Excellence “The Ocean in the Earth System” at MARUM (Grant EXC309). A. Sluijs thanks the European Research Council for consolidator Grant 771497 (SPANC). We thank Dr. Rattanasriampaipong, Dr. Pancost, and Dr. Inglis for constructive feedback that improved our work. We thank K. Nierop, D. Eefting, M. Hoorweg, and J. Hefter for their assistance in the lab; NIOZ and technical team for mooring and recovery of sediment traps in Eastern Mediterranean, and P. van Santvoort and his team for sample splitting on board; B. van der Veen for analysis of Ross Sea samples; G. Fischer for deploying and recovering sediment traps at WTSA1 and WTSA2; Leonardo Langone, Lucilla Capotondi, and Mariangela Ravaioli for deploying and recovering the RS sediment trap and CNR‐ISMAR Bologna is thanked for providing the Ross Sea sediment trap samples. This work was carried out under the program of the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC), financially supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie, grant agreement No 847504 and from the Clusters of Excellence “The Ocean in the Earth System” at MARUM (Grant EXC309). A. Sluijs thanks the European Research Council for consolidator Grant 771497 (SPANC). We thank Dr. Rattanasriampaipong, Dr. Pancost, and Dr. Inglis for constructive feedback that improved our work.

Keywords

GDGTs
seasonality
sediment traps
TEX86

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10.1029/2025PA005141

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Cite this

Rice, A., Park, E., Mollenhauer, G., Bouwmans, D., van Boxtel, A., de Lange, G. J., Paul, R., Sangiorgi, F., Smulders, R., Stuut, J. B., Ziegler, M., Sluijs, A., & Peterse, F. (2026). Seasonal Changes in Marine Archaeal Tetraether Lipid Export Depth Linked to Net Primary Productivity. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 41(2), 1-21. Article e2025PA005141. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005141

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abstract = "Marine ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) produce isoprenoid glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) which form the basis of seawater temperature proxy TEX86. Although most studies use TEX86 for sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions, maximum GDGT production occurs at and below the nitracline. Moreover, sedimentary GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values >5 reflect GDGT contributions of a deeper dwelling (>100 m) clade of AOA, fueling debate on export mechanisms and the water depth of TEX86 proxy sensitivity. We investigate subseasonal variations in GDGT export depth using 4 new and 19 previously published marine sediment trap records and compare results to real-time biogeochemical and physical hindcast/reanalysis model outputs. Due to the complexity of the biological pump and the often short time series of sediment trap records, no globally consistent pattern emerges. However, GDGT-2/GDGT-3 ratios imply seasonal changes in GDGT export depth, and often correlate to changes in the depth (negative) or intensity (positive) of maximum net primary production (NPP). Increased/shallower maximum NPP also correlate positively with GDGT flux at several sites, indicating that NPP exerts a strong control on GDGT origin depth. Mechanistically, increased/shallower maximum NPP incorporates relatively more shallow clade GDGTs into sinking particles, leading to lower GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values. Additionally, GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values correlate with TEX86 in most sediment traps, suggesting that, on sub-annual timescales, mixing of shallow and deep-clade derived GDGTs rather than SST changes causes variations in TEX86. TEX86-based temperatures are up to 0.5°C lower per unit increase in GDGT-2/GDGT-3, but the North Atlantic deviates from this global trend with a positive correlation.",

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Rice, A, Park, E, Mollenhauer, G, Bouwmans, D, van Boxtel, A, de Lange, GJ, Paul, R, Sangiorgi, F, Smulders, R, Stuut, JB, Ziegler, M, Sluijs, A & Peterse, F 2026, 'Seasonal Changes in Marine Archaeal Tetraether Lipid Export Depth Linked to Net Primary Productivity', Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, vol. 41, no. 2, e2025PA005141, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005141

TY - JOUR

T1 - Seasonal Changes in Marine Archaeal Tetraether Lipid Export Depth Linked to Net Primary Productivity

AU - Rice, Addison

AU - Park, Eunmi

AU - Mollenhauer, Gesine

AU - Bouwmans, Daisy

AU - van Boxtel, Anouk

AU - de Lange, Gert J.

AU - Paul, Ryan

AU - Sangiorgi, Francesca

AU - Smulders, Ryan

AU - Stuut, Jan Berend

AU - Ziegler, Martin

AU - Sluijs, Appy

AU - Peterse, Francien

PY - 2026/2

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AB - Marine ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) produce isoprenoid glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) which form the basis of seawater temperature proxy TEX86. Although most studies use TEX86 for sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions, maximum GDGT production occurs at and below the nitracline. Moreover, sedimentary GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values >5 reflect GDGT contributions of a deeper dwelling (>100 m) clade of AOA, fueling debate on export mechanisms and the water depth of TEX86 proxy sensitivity. We investigate subseasonal variations in GDGT export depth using 4 new and 19 previously published marine sediment trap records and compare results to real-time biogeochemical and physical hindcast/reanalysis model outputs. Due to the complexity of the biological pump and the often short time series of sediment trap records, no globally consistent pattern emerges. However, GDGT-2/GDGT-3 ratios imply seasonal changes in GDGT export depth, and often correlate to changes in the depth (negative) or intensity (positive) of maximum net primary production (NPP). Increased/shallower maximum NPP also correlate positively with GDGT flux at several sites, indicating that NPP exerts a strong control on GDGT origin depth. Mechanistically, increased/shallower maximum NPP incorporates relatively more shallow clade GDGTs into sinking particles, leading to lower GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values. Additionally, GDGT-2/GDGT-3 values correlate with TEX86 in most sediment traps, suggesting that, on sub-annual timescales, mixing of shallow and deep-clade derived GDGTs rather than SST changes causes variations in TEX86. TEX86-based temperatures are up to 0.5°C lower per unit increase in GDGT-2/GDGT-3, but the North Atlantic deviates from this global trend with a positive correlation.

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KW - seasonality

KW - sediment traps

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Seasonal Changes in Marine Archaeal Tetraether Lipid Export Depth Linked to Net Primary Productivity

Abstract

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Keywords

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