The effect of bioturbation in pelagic sediments: Lessons from radioactive tracers and planktonic foraminifera in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea ...
Studies of recent environmental perturbations often rely on data derived from marine sedimentary records. These records are known to imperfectly inscribe the true sequence of events, yet there is large uncertainty regarding the corrections that should be employed to accurately describe the sedimenta...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Elsevier
2016
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.39268 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/292114 |
Summary: | Studies of recent environmental perturbations often rely on data derived from marine sedimentary records. These records are known to imperfectly inscribe the true sequence of events, yet there is large uncertainty regarding the corrections that should be employed to accurately describe the sedimentary history. Here we show in recent records from the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, how events of the abrupt disappearance of the planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides sacculifer, and episodic deposition of the artificial radionuclide137Cs, are significantly altered in the sedimentary record compared to their known past timing. Instead of the abrupt disappearance of the foraminifera, we observe a prolonged decline beginning at core depth equivalent to ∼30 y prior to its actual disappearance and continuing for decades past the event. We further observe asymmetric smoothing of the radionuclide peak. Utilization of advection–diffusion–reaction models to reconstruct the original fluxes based on the known absolute timing of ... |
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