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The White Sea being connected with the Arctic Ocean via the Barents Sea has an influence on its water temperature/salinity structures and biological processes and thus has an indirect impact on the Eurasian climate system. In this work, we have managed to find a correspondence between the climate fluctuation in the Holocene and changes in the geochemical and microfossil properties in the sediment core of the White Sea. For the first time, the element speciation in the sediment core covering about 10,000 cal yr BP period was investigated. The cooling periods (the early Holocene and the Subboreal stage) were characterized by a trend of increase in Si, Al, and Ti contents and Ti/Al ratios, which reflect lithogenous contribution, and decrease in geochemically labile forms of trace elements. A significant increase in the content of organic-bound trace elements and biogenic components (Сorg, BSi, and chlorin) was observed during periods of Holocene climatic optimums. The evident relationship between the metal speciation and indicators of the sedimentation paleoenvironment is observed at the stage of the active phase of early diagenesis after the slowing down of the biogeochemical processes. Down-core decrease in the Mn oxyhydroxide content exhibited a weakening of diagenesis processes at the ~130–150 cm depth.

A combination of geochemical methods were used to study organic matter from Permian rocks in the central part of the Vilyui syneclise (East Siberia) penetrated by the Srednevilyuiskaya-27 ultra-deep well in the depth range of 3370-6458 m. This study discusses variations in the pyrolysis indices (HI, Tmax), hydrocarbon type content (hydrocarbons-resins-asphaltenes), vitrinite reflectance (R0vt, %), organic carbon content (Corg), as well as some trends in the saturated and aromatic hydrocarbon compositions of bitumen extracts from the Upper Paleozoic rocks. Below a depth of about 4.5 km (late mesocatagenesis), the hydrocarbon type composition is characterized by a sharp decrease in the content of asphaltenes from < 30 % (at 4.5-5.0 km) to < 15 % (at 5.0-5.5 km), which are not detected at greater depth. In turn, the resins became the dominant constituent (~ 50-70 %), whereas hydrocarbons account for < 20 % at depths down to 5 km and < 40 % at greater depth. These depths are also characterized by a predominance of saturated hydrocarbons over aromatic compounds with a decrease in the relative contents of high molecular weight compounds in both fractions, as indicated by mass chromatograms. The hydrocarbon index (HI) of organic matter decreases to the first tens from the depth of 4.9 km and to the bottomhole (6519 m); the temperature of the maximum hydrocarbon yield (Tmax) varies between 570-580 °C, showing a slightly increasing trend. Our results show that the generative potential of organic matter from the rocks within the studied depth range (4.9-6.5 km) has been exhausted and that the terrestrial organic matter undergoes significant changes under severe temperature and pressure conditions at great depths.