Microfossils, a Key to Unravel Cold-Water Carbonate Mound Evolution through Time: Evidence from the Eastern Alboran Sea ...

• Main Authors: Stalder, Claudio, Vertino, Agostina, Rosso, Antonietta, Rueggeberg, Andres, Pirkenseer, Claudius, Spangenberg, Jorge E., Spezzaferri, Silvia, Camozzi, Osvaldo, Rappo, Sacha, Hajdas, Irka
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2015
• Subjects: Lophelia pertusa
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000105653; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/105653

Cold-water coral (CWC) ecosystems occur worldwide and play a major role in the ocean's carbonate budget and atmospheric CO2 balance since the Danian (~65 m.y. ago). However their temporal and spatial evolution against climatic and oceanographic variability is still unclear. For the first time, we combine the main macrofaunal components of a sediment core from a CWC mound of the Melilla Mounds Field in the Eastern Alboran Sea with the associated microfauna and we highlight the importance of foraminifera and ostracods as indicators of CWC mound evolution in the paleorecord. Abundances of macrofauna along the core reveal alternating periods dominated by distinct CWC taxa (mostly Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata) that correspond to major shifts in foraminiferal and ostracod assemblages. The period dominated by M. oculata coincides with a period characterized by increased export of refractory organic matter to the seafloor and rather unstable oceanographic conditions at the benthic boundary layer with ... : PLoS ONE, 10 (10) ...