Nutrient and carbonate ion proxy calibrations in the deep sea coral D. dianthus (Invited)
Abstract
Marine carbonates are among the most successful and reliable substrates for chemical paleoceanographic studies. Deep-sea corals are especially useful because they allow measurement of both 14C and U-Th dates in a single coral. Tracers, however, are needed to derive ventilation rates in the past from the mixing ratio of distinct endmember water masses. Reconstruction of nutrient abundances and carbonate ion distributions, even in regions where deep mixing is sluggish and regeneration is significant, could provide clues about basin-scale variations in export production, changes in whole-ocean nutrient inventory, and carbonate system equilibria on geological timescales. To fill this gap, we present modern calibrations of two paleo-nutrient proxies and a carbonate ion proxy in the deep sea coral D. dianthus. We demonstrate that P/Ca, Ba/Ca and U/Ca are direct proxies for phosphate (remineralized at shallow depths), dissolved barium (a deep-remineralized element with silicate-type distribution) and seawater carbonate ion, respectively. We analyzed 20, globally distributed, D. dianthus specimens using a 193nm excimer laser ablation HR-ICP-MS, along growth axis-oriented septal thick sections, which reveals the internal structure. Using an 80-100 μm spot size, data are collected from within the fibrous aragonite avoiding central band material as well as contamination and altered aragonite on the exterior of the septa. All seawater data used are derived from nearby WOCE/GEOSECS/CLIVAR stations. Plotting the coralline P/Ca against ambient seawater phosphate resulted in a calibration with an apparent partition coefficient (D= Element/Cacoral / Element/Caseawater) of 0.5 ± 0.1 (r=0.8, P<0.05, n=17). Similarly, the Ba/Ca in the coral versus dissolved seawater barium gave a DBa= 1.3 ± 0.3 (r= 0.8, P<0.05, n=15), and coralline U/Ca (µmol/mol) versus seawater carbonate ion (µmol/kg) gave a regression slope of -0.098 ± 0.002 (r=0.8, P<0.05, n=13). We tested potential secondary effects of other hydrographic parameters on the above calibrations by plotting the individual D for each sample against ambient temperature, pressure, salinity, pH, and carbonate ion. No significant relationship was found with any of these seawater properties. We will discuss refinements to these findings based on regional calibrations for new coral samples from the Southern Ocean.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFMPP13E..05A
- Keywords:
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- 4916 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY / Corals;
- 4924 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY / Geochemical tracers