Coral mound development at the Campeche cold-water coral province, southern Gulf of Mexico: Implications of Antarctic Intermediate Water increased influence during interglacials

Coral mounds formed by framework-forming scleractinian cold-water corals (CWC; mainly Lopheliapertusa) are a common seabed feature along the Atlantic continental margins. While coral mound areas in the NE Atlantic reveal a climate-dependent temporal pattern of CWC occurrence and mound aggradation th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Geology
Main Authors: Matos, Lelia, Wienberg, Claudia, Titschack, Juergen, Schmiedl, Gerhard, Frank, Norbert, Abrantes, Fatima, Cunha, Marina R., Hebbeln, Dierk
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Science Bv 2017
Subjects:
Deep-Sea corals
Recent benthic foraminifera
Covered carbonate mound
Ne Atlantic-Ocean
Northeast Atlantic
Porcupine seabight
Growth history
Boundary-conditions
Continental-margin
Lophelia-pertusa
Antarctic
Porcupine Seabight
Antarc*
Lophelia pertusa
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/12975
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.08.012
Description
Summary:Coral mounds formed by framework-forming scleractinian cold-water corals (CWC; mainly Lopheliapertusa) are a common seabed feature along the Atlantic continental margins. While coral mound areas in the NE Atlantic reveal a climate-dependent temporal pattern of CWC occurrence and mound aggradation that is related to distinct environmental conditions (e.g., productivity, water mass properties, hydrodynamics), the long-term development of CWC and coral mounds at the western side of the Atlantic is less well documented and understood. Here, we present a 260-kyr coral record from the recently described Campeche CWC province in the southern Gulf of Mexico, combined with a reconstruction of the paleo-environmental conditions for the last 140 kyr. Uranium-series dating of 26 coral samples reveals that CWC growth predominantly coincided with interglacial periods. Highest vertical mound aggradation rates of 34 to 40 cm kyr(-1) occurred during the Holocene. The reduced occurrence of CWC and the concurrent almost complete stagnation in mound aggradation during glacial periods could be linked to a diminished presence of Antarctic Intermediate Water at those intermediate depths in which the coral mounds occur. Such setting would have caused a less dynamic bottom current regime resulting in a reduced food supply to the CWC along the Campeche Bank. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [HE 3412/17-1] Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [SFRH/BD/72149/2010] GLOMAR - the Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

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