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The Black Sea is the largest anoxic basin on earth and provides unique conditions for the study of key processes controlling the biology and biogeochemistry at pelagic redoxclines. By identifying microbiological/biogeochemical agents and assessing rates of the coupled cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, manganese and iron at the redox boundary the functional response of this specific environment upon the change of external conditions will be visible. Geochemical and textural investigation of authigenic mineral phases at the redoxcline will be also important to assess the importance of the so-called "Mn-Fe-P shuttle" for the phosphorus cycle and primary productivity, and to clarify the trapping function of trace-metals in anoxic systems. To meet the various water column sampling demands, on more than 40 stations CTD and P-CTD profiles as well as multi-nets and in-situ pumps were deployed along several slope transects in the northwestern and northeastern Black Sea. Additionally, a permanent sediment trap mooring has been deployed in the central western basin. The sedimentary archive has been extensively sampled during the cruise by means of multicorer, gravity corer and piston corer. The upper parts of the cores consists of finely laminated late Holocene units providing excellent records of the Black Sea environmental history, of past changes in redoxcline dynamics, and of climate signals transported by rivers from the northern drainage basins of the Black Sea. Presite multibeam and Parasound surveys of about 400 nm were concluded. The research cruise was integral part of the implementation plan of the bilateral scientific cooperation between Germany and Ukraine in the field of marine sciences supported by the German and Ukrainian Ministries of Education and Science., MARIA S. MERIAN-Berichte

A full‐vector paleosecular variation (PSV) record (inclination, declination, and relative paleointensity) from the pen‐ultimate glacial (130–180 ka) could be constructed from a total of 12 sediment cores recovered from the Arkhangelsky Ridge in the SE Black Sea. Stacking of the individual partly fragmented records was achieved by a detailed correlation using high‐resolution data records from X‐ray fluorescence scanning, Ca/Ti and K/Ti log‐ratios, as well as magnetic susceptibility. Age constraints are provided by a detailed composite oxygen isotope stratigraphy from three of the cores, correlated to U‐Th‐dated speleothem oxygen isotope records from Hungary and Turkey. The temporal resolution of the stacked paleomagnetic data records is 200 years. Practically, this data set is the first high‐resolution PSV record for SE Europe/SW Asia from marine isotope stage 6, comprising inclination, declination and relative paleointensity. Besides an easterly swing in declination at ∼159 ka and a pronounced intensity low together with low inclinations at ∼148 ka, both not reaching an excursional PSV index of >0.5, the obtained directional variations reflect only normal PSVs, with a PSV index of, Key Points: Reconstructed geomagnetic field variation record between 180 and 130 ka from Black Sea sediments. First full‐vector paleosecular variation record from marine isotope stage 6 for Southeast Europe/Southwest Asia. Intensity maxima occur at 166.5 ka and at 141.0 ka., Chinese Scholarship Council, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659