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Growth rates of the deep-sea scleractinia Desmophyllum cristagalli and Enallopsammia rostrata
- Source :
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Elsevier, 2004, 227 (3-4), pp.481-490. ⟨10.1016/j.epsl.2004.08.022⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2004
- Publisher :
- Elsevier, 2004.
-
Abstract
- With uranium rich skeletons and density bands similar to their surface coral counterparts, deep-sea scleractinia are a promising archive of past climate. To improve the utility of fossil samples as monitors of deep ocean variability, we have measured 210 Pb and 226 Ra activities in a variety of modern specimens to constrain the range of growth rates. Mechanical and chemical cleaning of each sample are required to isolate the radionuclides trapped in the coral skeleton from surface contaminants. However, in many cases mechanically cleaned samples show the same overall growth rate as parallel transects of samples subjected to the full chemical and mechanical cleaning but with much higher overall activities. Three samples of Desmophyllum cristagalli show a range of vertical extension rates from 0.5 mm/yr to 2 mm/yr, consistent with previous estimates. A single Enallopsammia rostrata from the North Atlantic is over 100 years old. Its average radial growth rate is 0.07 mm/yr, and the clear banding in this direction is not consistent with annual periodicity. A minimum vertical extension rate of 5 mm/yr is estimated from the 210 Pb data. Both of these species are found in the fossil record and, with the growth rates determined here, can record about 100 years of climate change. The growth rates will allow the reconstruction of climate at subdecadal resolution in D. cristagalli and even higher resolution in E. rostrata. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Range (biology)
Coral
Climate change
Scleractinia
01 natural sciences
Deep sea
Geochemistry and Petrology
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
[CHIM]Chemical Sciences
14. Life underwater
Growth rate
Transect
ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Radionuclide
biology
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
biology.organism_classification
Geophysics
Oceanography
13. Climate action
Space and Planetary Science
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]
[SDE]Environmental Sciences
Geology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0012821X
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Elsevier, 2004, 227 (3-4), pp.481-490. ⟨10.1016/j.epsl.2004.08.022⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....25a45a630737e868fbae11a6d6378d94