Synchronous Marine and Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Perturbation in the High Arctic during the PETM

The samples collected were from Core BH9-05 from the Paleogene Central Basin, Spitsbergen (~77.83 ^o^N, 16.5 ^o^E). The expedition was the result of a Paleo-Arctic Climates and Environments Project (pACE) sponsored by the Worldwide Universities Network. The samples contain organic-carbon-rich siliciclastic mudstones and siltstones. A total of 18 samples were analyzed in the isotopic biogeochemistry lab at the Pennsylvania State University for biomarker abundance and compound-specific carbon isotopes in 2010, and another 21 samples were subsequently analyzed for compound-specific carbon isotopes in 2014 to further examine the details of the CIE. The temporal coverage is Paleocene-Eocene transition (55.624 to 55.845 Ma), for a total of about 220,900 years. The data were collected for compound-specific carbon isotope analysis for both long-chain and short-chain n-alkanes. The biomarker analyses were performed on a Hewlett-Packard 6890 GC coupled to a Hewlett-Packard 5973 quadrupole MS, and the compound-specific carbon isotopes were analyzed using a GC-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (GC-IRMS).