In order to determine the timing of Antarctic ice sheet retreat and advance during the Late Quaternary, various tools are used to measure the age of marginal marine sediments. Carbonate 14C dating is a well-established approach, but requires foraminiferal microfossils, shells or other carbonate materials that are rare in most Antarctic regions, and may also suffer from vital effects, which can result in variability of up to 500 years in living organisms. Bulk acid insoluble organic (AIO) 14C dates are frequently as an alternative, but this approach works best where high productivity and sedimentation rates reign, and not too well in condensed sequences where high proportions of detritus are present. Compound specific dating methods have also been employed, but these may still yield an average age from a mixture of components and require very large sample sizes. Alternate methods of applying a chronology have also been used, such as magnetic intensity dating, or regional correlation with well-dated cores, but these may not always provide accurate and precise dates. Here I present work, some published with co-authors, of progressive improvements of Ramped PyrOx 14C dating, which utilizes the thermochemical degradation of components within a bulk AIO sediment sample. This dissertation focuses on the study, improvement and application of advanced Ramped PyrOx techniques. These improvements include novel techniques, such as compositing and isotope dilution that I use to date sediments where the proportion of contemporaneously deposited carbon is very small relative to other detrital components, and maximize the accuracy of resulting dates while minimizing costs in precision from utilizing ultra-small fractions of the bulk sample. Ramped PyrOx 14C dating techniques allows us to generate chronologies for cores that would otherwise go undated. Furthermore, these techniques can be used to push the limits of radiocarbon dating not only to regions where accurate core chronologies have been difficult to come by, but also further back in time, into marine sediment horizons deposited at or before the last glacial maximum (LGM), where highly detrital material has precluded radiocarbon dating in the past. Wider use of these techniques can enable more coordinated a priori coring efforts to constrain regional glacial responses to rapid warming.

L’objectif de ma thèse est de mieux comprendre le fonctionnement de deux proxies de température de surface de l’océan (SST), les indices Uk’37 et TEX86, notamment en terme de saison et de profondeur de production des alcènones et des tétraéthers sur lesquels ils reposent, au cours des 160 000 dernières années au niveau de la marge ibérique. L’originalité de ce projet de thèse réside dans sa double approche, avec d’une part l’acquisition des enregistrements sédimentaires, et d’autre part l’utilisation d’un outil de modélisation régionale couplée physique-biogéochimie pour simuler ces proxies sous 3 modes climatiques : au présent, lors du dernier maximum glaciaire, et lors d’événements de Heinrich. La confrontation des résultats des biomarqueurs avec ceux de tests de scénarios de production par la modélisation ont conduit aux conclusions suivantes. L’Uk’37 enregistre bien des SSTs moyennes annuelles, alors que le TEX86 présente a priori des températures beaucoup trop élevées pour cette zone. La formulation d’une calibration régionale pour le TEX86 permet d’obtenir des SSTs moyennes annuelles cohérentes. Le meilleur endroit de la marge ibérique pour appliquer ces deux paléothermomètres est le site de Shackleton. Après analyse fine des timings des signaux multiproxies, le TEX86 semble être produit à des profondeurs intermédiaires, potentiellement par des communautés d’Archées d’origine méditerranéenne. Les variations de gradients thermiques latitudinaux ont été quantifiées, et des réorganisations de masses d’eaux de surface et intermédiaire au niveau de la marge ibérique ont été envisagées selon le climat glaciaire/interglaciaire lors des évènements de type Heinrich. / My PhD project aims at better understanding the functioning of both organic proxies of sea surface temperature (SST), Uk’37 and TEX86, especially in terms of season and depth of alkenone and tetraether production, over the last 160 000 years on the Iberian Margin. The originality of this project lies in its double approach: on the one hand, with the acquisition of Uk’37 and TEX86 sedimentary records from the Iberian Margin, and on the other hand with the use of a coupled physics-biogeochemistry regional model to simulate these temperature proxies for 3 climate modes: at present, during the last glacial maximum, and during Heinrich Stadials. The comparison of biomarker results with those from modeling tests of production scenarios provided the following conclusions. Uk’37 does record annual mean SSTs, whereas TEX86 shows a priori too high temperature for this area. The formulation of a regional calibration for TEX86 index enables to obtain coherent past annual mean SSTs. The best location to apply both paleothermometers on the Iberian Margin is the Shackleton site. After refined analysis of multiproxy signal timings, TEX86 production seems to take place at intermediate depth, potentially by archaean communities coming from the Mediterranean Sea. Latitudinal thermal gradient variations are quantified, and glacial/interglacial surface and intermediate water masses reorganizations during 'Heinrich like' events are considered.