Reply to comment by D. Wang et al. on “Empirical partition coefficients for Sr and Ca in marine barite: Implications for reconstructing seawater Sr and Ca concentrations”

Abstract

[1] Wang et al. [2007] argue that the empirical distribution coefficient for Sr in marine barite obtained from the Sr/Ba composition of Holocene core top marine barite could not be used to reconstruct past seawater Sr concentrations. The premise for this argument is that Sr substitution into barite is not primarily a function of ambient Sr concentrations at the time barite precipitated. Wang et al. [2007] base their argument on the relatively large range of Sr/Ba ratios measured by Averyt and Paytan [2003] in the core top barite. They suggest that variable spatial and temporal ocean temperatures are responsible for the variations and without knowledge of the seawater temperature at the time and location of barite precipitation, the empirical distribution coefficient may not be used. However, we believe that we arrived at the best possible partition coefficient for Sr in marine barite based on the data available in 2003 and that despite ignoring the temperature effects this coefficient is useful if applied correctly.