Carbonate system of surface sediments from the South Pacific

DOI

B/Ca ratios in Cibicides mundulus and Cibicides wuellerstorfi have been shown to correlate with the degree of calcite saturation in seawater (D[CO32-]). In the South Pacific, a region of high importance in the global carbon cycle, these species are not continuously present in down-core records. Small numbers of epibenthic foraminifera in samples present an additional challenge, which can be overcome by using laser ablation-inductively coupled-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). We present a laser ablation based core-top calibration for Cibicides cf. wuellerstorfi, a C. wuellerstorfi morphotype that is abundant in the South Pacific and extend the existing global core top calibration for C. mundulus and C. wuellerstorfi to this region. B/Ca in C. cf. wuellerstorfi are linearly correlated with D[CO32-] and possibly display a higher sensitivity to calcite saturation changes than C. wuellerstorfi. Trace element profiles through C. wuellerstorfi and C. mundulus reveal an intra-shell B/Ca variation of ±36% around the mean shell value. Mg/Ca and B/Ca display opposite trends along the shell. Both phenomena likely result from ontogenetic effects. Intra-shell variability equals intra-sample variability, mean sample B/Ca values can thus be reliably calculated from averaged spot results of single specimen. In the global B/Ca-D[CO32-] range, we observe an inverse relationship between water mass age and D[CO32-].

Supplement to: Kersten, Franziska; Tiedemann, Ralf; Fietzke, Jan; Frische, Matthias (2013): The B/Ca proxy for past seawater carbonate chemistry reconstructions-laser ablation based calibrations for C. mundulus, C. wuellerstorfi and its morphotype C. cf. wuellerstorfi. Climate of the Past Discussions, 9(4), 4425-4448

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.821013
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.5194/cpd-9-4425-2013
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.821013
Provenance
Creator Kersten, Franziska; Tiedemann, Ralf ORCID logo; Fietzke, Jan ORCID logo; Frische, Matthias
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2013
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Supplementary Publication Series of Datasets; Collection
Format application/zip
Size 24 datasets
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-115.153W, -48.262S, 174.526E, -43.403N)
Temporal Coverage Begin 2010-01-21T18:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2011-03-04T14:34:00Z