Productivity control of fine particle transport to equatorial Pacific sediment

Abstract

Accumulation rates of 3He (from cosmic dust), 230Th (produced in the water column), barite (produced in the water column during decay of organic matter), and Fe and Ti (arriving with wind‐borne dust) all are positively correlated in an equatorial Pacific core (TT013‐PC72; 01.1°N, 139.4°W; water depth 4298 m). These accumulation rates are also positively correlated with the accumulation rates of noncarbonate material. They are not significantly correlated to the mass accumulation rate of carbonate, which makes up the bulk of the sediment. The fluctuations in accumulation rates of these various components from different sources thus must result from variations in some process within the oceans and not from variations in their original sources. Sediment focusing by oceanic bottom currents has been proposed as this process [Marcantonio et al., 1996]. We argue that the variations in the accumulation rates of all these components are dominantly linked to changes in productivity and particle scavenging (3He, 230Th, Fe, Ti) by fresh phytoplankton detritus (which delivers Ba upon its decay) in the equatorial Pacific upwelling region. We speculate that as equatorial Pacific productivity is a major component of global oceanic productivity, its variations over time might be reflected in variations in atmospheric levels of methanesulfonic acid (an atmospheric reaction product of dimethyl sulfide, which is produced by oceanic phytoplankton) and recorded in Antarctic ice cores.