Heterozoan carbonates in subtropical to tropical settings in the present and past

Water temperature has received considerable attention as steering factor for the genesis of different types of marine carbonate sediments. However, parameters other than temperature also strongly influence ecosystems and, consequently, the carbonate grain associations in the resulting carbonate rock. Among those factors are biological evolution, water energy, substrate, water chemistry, light penetration, trophic conditions, CO2 concentrations, and Mg/Ca ratios in the seawater. Increased nutrient levels in warm-water settings, for example, lead to heterotrophic-dominated associations that are characteristic of temperate to cool-water carbonates. Failure to recognize the influence of such environmental factors that shift the grain associations towards heterotrophic communities in low latitudes can lead to misinterpretation of climatic conditions in the past. Modern analogues of low-latitude heterozoan carbonates help to recognize and understand past occurrences of heterozoan warm-water carbonates. Careful analysis of such sediments therefore is required in order to achieve robust reconstructions of past climate

Century-scale trends and seasonality in pH and temperature for shallow zones of the Bering Sea

No records exist to evaluate long-term pH dynamics in high-latitude oceans, which have the greatest probability of rapid acidification from anthropogenic CO2 emissions. We reconstructed both seasonal variability and anthropogenic change in seawater pH and temperature by using laser ablation high-resolution 2D images of stable boron isotopes (δ11B) on a long-lived coralline alga that grew continuously through the 20th century. Analyses focused on four multiannual growth segments. We show a long-term decline of 0.08 ± 0.01 pH units between the end of the 19th and 20th century, which is consistent with atmospheric CO2 records. Additionally, a strong seasonal cycle (∼0.22 pH units) is observed and interpreted as episodic annual pH increases caused by the consumption of CO2 during strong algal (kelp) growth in spring and summer. The rate of acidification intensifies from –0.006 ± 0.007 pH units per decade (between 1920s and 1960s) to –0.019 ± 0.009 pH units per decade (between 1960s and 1990s), and the episodic pH increases show a continuous shift to earlier times of the year throughout the centennial record. This is indicative of ecosystem shifts in shallow water algal productivity in this high-latitude habitat resulting from warming and acidification

Comparison of climate signals obtained from encrusting and free-living rhodolith coralline algae

Highlights • Comparison of encrusting and rhodolith coralline algae for paleoclimate reconstruction • Both coralline algal forms can yield SST information, but encrusting forms generally yield higher correlations to SST. • Encrusting morphologies yielded longer records due to frequent growth irregularities in rhodoliths. Abstract Coralline algae have been used for sclerochronological studies throughout the last decade. These studies have focused on two different growth morphologies of the photosynthetic coralline algae: massive crusts forming small buildups on hard substrate, and free-living branching algal nodules, known as rhodoliths. The latter are generally found on soft-substrate, where they are frequently overturned by water movement and bottom feeding organisms, leaving one side of the rhodolith partially buried in the sediment at any given time. Here we test whether either of these growth morphologies is more suitable for proxy reconstructions by comparing Mg/Ca ratios – a temperature proxy – in multiple replicates of rhodoliths of Lithothamnion glaciale and in rhodoliths as well as encrusting specimens of Clathromorphum compactum. With both species being widespread throughout the Temperate and Arctic regions, we have chosen two North Atlantic localities at Nuuk Fjord, Greenland (Subarctic), and off the southeastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada (Temperate), for this study. Two to three Mg/Ca ratio transects spanning 18 years of growth were analysed on multiple specimens with encrusting morphologies and along different sides of rhodoliths using laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry and compared to remotely sensed sea surface temperature (SST) data. The length of the common time span used for comparison was limited by growth interruptions in rhodoliths. Furthermore, our comparison is based on the assumption that rhodolith growth increments are annual – an assumption that has recently been challenged by mesocosm studies. Monthly Mg/Ca values from multiple transects within each individual were compared and in samples from Nuuk fjord significant correlations were found in 4 of 4 encrusting C. compactum, 4 of 4 C. compactum rhodoliths, and 2 of 3 L. glaciale rhodoliths. In Newfoundland significant correlations were found in 6 of 6 encrusting C. compactum comparisons (average: r = 0.61, p < 0.001), and in 6 of 6 L. glaciale rhodolith comparisons (average: r = 0.43, p < 0.001) for monthly resolved time series. The monthly Mg/Ca ratios (n = 216) from each morphology were compared with instrumental Reynolds SST yielding the following correlations: encrusting C. compactum (r = 0.64, p < 0.001), C. compactum rhodolith (r = 0.62, p < 0.001) and L. glaciale (r = 0.58, p < 0.001). In Newfoundland both morphologies indicate a similar strength in recording SST: encrusting C. compactum (r = 0.85, p < 0.001) and rhodolith-forming L. glaciale (r = 0.84, p < 0.001). In summary, Mg/Ca ratios derived from both coralline algal growth forms can yield SST information, however, massive encrusting forms generally yield higher correlations to SST than transects measured on individual rhodoliths, which only allowed for the generation of short uninterrupted time series due to frequent growth irregularities

Freshening of the Alaska Coastal Current recorded by coralline algal Ba/Ca ratios

Arctic Ocean freshening can exert a controlling influence on global climate, triggering strong feedbacks on ocean‐atmospheric processes and affecting the global cycling of the world’s oceans. Glacier‐fed ocean currents such as the Alaska Coastal Current are important sources of freshwater for the Bering Sea shelf, and may also influence the Arctic Ocean freshwater budget. Instrumental data indicate a multiyear freshening episode of the Alaska Coastal Current in the early 21st century. It is uncertain whether this freshening is part of natural multidecadal climate variability or a unique feature of anthropogenically induced warming. In order to answer this, a better understanding of past variations in the Alaska Coastal Current is needed. However, continuous long‐term high‐resolution observations of the Alaska Coastal Current have only been available for the last 2 decades. In this study, specimens of the long‐lived crustose coralline alga Clathromorphum nereostratum were collected within the pathway of the Alaska Coastal Current and utilized as archives of past temperature and salinity. Results indicate that coralline algal Mg/Ca ratios provide a 60 year record of sea surface temperatures and track changes of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a pattern of decadal‐to‐multidecadal ocean‐atmosphere climate variability centered over the North Pacific. Algal Ba/Ca ratios (used as indicators of coastal freshwater runoff) are inversely correlated to instrumentally measured Alaska Coastal Current salinity and record the period of freshening from 2001 to 2006. Similar multiyear freshening events are not evident in the earlier portion of the 60 year Ba/Ca record. This suggests that the 21st century freshening of the Alaska Coastal Current is a unique feature related to increasing glacial melt and precipitation on mainland Alaska

Shallow-water Benthic Foraminifera of the Galápagos Archipelago: Ecologically Sensitive Carbonate Producers in an Atypical Tropical Oceanographic Setting

Coral reefs are currently exposed to a number of anthropogenic pressures worldwide. With ocean warming and acidification expected to continue in the near future, it is important to study coral environments within natural oceanographic gradients, particularly with respect to their effects on environmental indicator species. Benthic foraminifera are sensitive to environmental change, making them ideal indicators of reef water quality and health. Hence, we studied benthic foraminifera from samples collected throughout the Galápagos Archipelago, an equatorial island chain strongly influenced by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and deep water upwelling—resulting in an atypical natural temperature, nutrient, and pH transition zone throughout the tropical latitudes of the archipelago. While foraminiferal abundances averaged 0.7% of all sand-sized carbonate grains, assemblages were characterized by a total of 161 species in 72 genera. The northern archipelago was dominated by Miliolida and contained the highest percentages of symbiont-bearing taxa in the Galápagos. However, the archipelago as a whole strongly favored heterotrophic Rotaliida, particularly throughout the southern islands, which are directly impacted by high nutrient and low pH upwelling from the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). While the Eastern Tropical Pacific does not show the diversity of its western counterpart, Galápagos foraminiferal assemblages revealed a relatively high foraminiferal diversity for the region as well as evidence in support of earlier reports of high endemism within the archipelago

Variable El Niño-Southern Oscillation influence on biofacies dynamics of eastern Pacific shallow-water carbonate systems

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a periodic climatic and oceanic event caused by sea-surface temperature and nutrient anomalies over the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP). Recurring ENSO events have a significant impact on climate and the ecosystems of the circum-Pacific region. In the marine realm, ENSO is known for altering temperature and nutrient patterns, affecting the pelagic food chain, and causing widespread bleaching of corals due to temperature stress. The potential impacts of ENSO on shallow benthic ecosystems as a whole, however, are poorly understood. Here, we compared biogenic sedimentary facies of ETP shallow-water carbonate systems in a strongly ENSO-influenced area (Galápagos Islands, Ecuador [GAL]) with similar systems in an area less stronglyinfluenced by ENSO (Gulf of California, Mexico [GOC]). Carbonate assemblages in both study regions range from coral-algal-dominated (photozoan) to molluscan-dominated (heterozoan) assemblages. Linear statistical models, comparing the distribution of carbonates against prominent local oceanographic parameters, show that minimum chlorophyll-a and maximum sea-surface temperature (which are both strongly influenced by ENSO) are dominant drivers shaping carbonate sediment facies in the GAL. In contrast, GOC carbonates have a distinct mean chlorophyll-a signature that is the result of anupwelling-induced north-south nutrient gradient not significantly influenced by ENSO

La inteligencia libertadora. Esbozos y escorzos de don Miguel Hidalgo. [Reseña]

Reseña de: Ernesto DE LA TORRE VILLAR, La inteligencia libertadora. Esbozos y escorzos de don Miguel Hidalgo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, 2004, 87 pp

Facies architecture and sedimentology of a meandering fluvial system: a Palaeogene example from the Weisselster Basin, Germany

The Schleenhain open pit coal mine, located 30 km south of Leipzig, Germany, exposes Upper Eocene and Oligocene non-marine strata representing fluvial deposition in the centre of the Weisselster Basin. Active mining and successive cuts provided the rare opportunity to obtain a three-dimensional perspective of laterally extensive surface outcrops. These were used to construct a detailed fence diagram, which provided the basis for recognition of key architectural elements in the weakly consolidated meandering stream deposits. In addition to the eight basic architectural elements of Miall (1985), the element SL (shallow lake deposits) was newly defined and the element CH (channel) was subdivided into CHg (palaeo-river system) and CHk (small channel). The profiles contain parts of two fining-upward cycles, which are separated by an unconformity spanning the Early Oligocene. Deposits of the first cycle begin with transverse sand bars (downstream accretion deposits-DA) and point bars (lateral accretion deposits-LA). The upper part of the cycle is represented by overbank fines (OF) and the element SL, which consists of laterally discontinuous lenses of dark, plant-bearing, kaolinite-rich clays, that were deposited in shallow lakes adjacent to the active channel. Coal seams interlayered with palaeosols are the main constituents of element OF. Sheetlike bodies of medium to fine gravels (gravel bars and bedforms-GB) on an erosive coal surface mark the beginning of the second cycle. Dissolution of underlying Permian salts and sulphates prior to, during, and after the deposition of the Palaeogene strata caused the development of two synclines within the outcrop. Coal seams and clay horizons which thicken and dip towards the centre of the synclines, provide evidence for their chronological development

Thermal stress markers in Colpophyllia natans provide an archive of site-specific bleaching events

Tropical coral reef monitoring relies heavily on in situ diver observations. However, in many reef regions resources are not available to regularly monitor reefs. This lack of historical baseline data makes it difficult to determine how different reefs respond to environmental stressors and what the implications are for management. To test whether coral cores could be used to identify bleaching events retrospectively, three sites in Tobago with pre-existing reef data including water quality and bleaching observations were identified. Colpophyllia natans cores were examined for growth anomalies which occurred during periods of thermal stress. If present, anomalies were compared to in situ, real-time bleaching observations and water quality data. Interestingly, sites with better water quality during the 2005 thermal anomaly were less prone to bleaching. We suggest that by reducing terrestrial run-off (e.g., sediment and nutrients), and therefore improving marine water quality, reef managers could enhance near-shore coral reef resilience during high-temperature events