Abstract
Trace element and isotope proxies in paleoceanography: Starting a new synergic effort around marine geochemical proxies
Highlights
Reconstruction of past ocean states relies on the use of “proxies”, since it is impossible to directly measure variables such as water temperature, biological production and ocean circulation
The keynote talks pointed out some recent findings, including the importance of recycled iron for biological productivity on seasonal-to-ice-age timescales (Rafter et al 2017), and complex biomineralization processes of silicifiers and their impact on the silicon isotopic ratio (Hendry et al 2018)
Three of the most frequently used geochemical proxies in paleoceanography do not tell a single, simple story: benthic foraminiferal carbon isotopic ratios (13C/12C or δ13C) suggest weaker and shallower glacial North Atlantic deep water circulation with a dominant contribution of the southern source water (Lynch-Stieglitz et al 2007), whereas the neodymium isotopic composition (143Nd/144Nd or εNd) recorded in authigenic oxides of planktonic foraminiferal calcites indicates a significant proportion of northern component waters in the North Atlantic over the LGM (Howe et al 2016)
Summary
Reconstruction of past ocean states relies on the use of “proxies” (indicators or tracers), since it is impossible to directly measure variables such as water temperature, biological production and ocean circulation. Multi-tracer analysis of the same water sample is one of the strongest strategies of the GEOTRACES program, and multi-proxy reconstruction provides the most reliable results.
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