Uk'37 values and related SST at the Ideale Section - Montalbano Jonico, Southern Italy

Alkenone extraction was performed at Brown University, USA and followed freeze-drying ~5 g of homogenized dry sediment, using 100% Dichloromethane (DCM) and a Dionex 200 Accelerated Solvent Extractor (ASE). Prior to quantification, extracts were evaporated with nitrogen and reconstituted with 200 µL of toluene spiked with n-hexatriacontane (C36) and n-heptatriacontane (C37) internal standards. Samples were purified by silica gel flash column chromatography to further isolate the ketone fraction. Alkenone concentrations (C37:2, C37:3, C38:3 ethyl, C38:3 methyl, C38:2 2ethyl and C38:2 methyl ketones, resolved to baseline under our chromatographic conditions) were determined using an Agilent Technologies 6890 gas chromatograph–flame ionization detector (GC-FID), with Agilent Technologies DB-1 column (60 m, 0.32 mm diameter and 0.10 mm film thickness). In the present dataset we provide the alkenone unsaturation ratio (Uk'37) and different translations to Sea Surface Temperature (SST) according to different calibrations.