Boron in siliceous materials as a paleosalinity indicator

Abstract

The 10B(n, α) 7Li nuclear reaction has been used with alpha-sensitive plastic track detectors to determine boron concentrations in siliceous live-collected and fossil sponge spicules. This radiographic technique allows B determinations with 5–6% uncertainties on objects 20–25 μm in diameter and for concentrations as low as 0.5 ppm. Boron concentrations in spicules from different specimens from the same location agreed to within 10% when the spicules were not: (1) smaller than 20 μm in diameter, (2) from dictyonine skeletons, (3) the extremely large root-like spicules found in some soft substrate hexactinellids, or (4) microscleres. These criteria also applied to spicules found in sediment samples. Spicules from live-collected sponges exhibited a taxonomy-independent correlation of B concentrations with water salinity for samples from regions of low water temperature and high productivity. Measured concentrations ranged from nearly 0 ppm B (freshwater sponges) to 500–700 ppm (marine sponges), with intermediate values for brackish-water specimens. However, spicules from tropical, low-productivity marine locations contained markedly less boron than spicules from temperate, high-productivity regions. Thus, water temperature and/or food supply also seem to influence B concentrations. Pleistocene spicules from deep-sea cores contained less boron than was expected in comparison with live-collected spicules based on present water temperatures and nutrient supplies, but B concentrations did not vary with depth in the cores. Infrared spectroscopy, electron microprobe analysis and visual inspection revealed no evidence for chemical or mineralogic alteration. It is not clear whether the lower B concentrations of the Pleistocene samples are the result of diagenetic processes or the as yet undefined effects of differences in food supply and/or environmental conditions.