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

• Published in: Chemical Geology
• Main Authors: Williams, Siobhan, Halfar, Jochen, Zack, Thomas, Hetzinger, Steffen, Blicher, Martin, Juul-Pedersen, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Greenland; Nuuk; Newfoundland; North Atlantic; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/40371/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/40371/1/1-s2.0-S0009254117306691-main.pdf; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/40371/3/Williams_Suppl.xlsx; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/40371/8/Williams.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2017.11.038

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 ...