Northeastern Atlantic cold-water coral reefs and climate

• Published in: Geology
• Main Authors: Frank, N., Freiwald, A., Correa, M.L., Wienberg, C., Eisele, M., Hebbeln, D., van Rooij, D., Henriet, J.P., Colin, Christophe, van Weering, T., de Haas, H., Buhl-Mortensen, P., Murray Roberts, J., de Mol, B., Douville, E., Blamart, D., Hatté, Christine
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Géochrononologie Traceurs Archéométrie (GEOTRAC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Senckenberg Meer, GZN Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Center for Marine Environmental Sciences Bremen (MARUM), Universität Bremen, RCMG Ghent, Universiteit Gent = Ghent University Belgium (UGENT), Interactions et dynamique des environnements de surface (IDES), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Institute of Marine Research Bergen (IMR), University of Bergen (UiB), School Life Science Centre Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh (HWU), GRP Recerca Geociencies Marines, Université de Barcelonne, Paléocéanographie (PALEOCEAN)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Barents Sea; Lophelia pertusa
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00551438; https://doi.org/10.1130/G31825.1

International audience U-series age patterns obtained on reef framework-forming cold-water corals collected over a nearly 6000-km-long continental margin sector, extending from off Mauritania (17 degrees N; northwest Africa) to the southwestern Barents Sea (70 degrees N; northeastern Europe), reveal strong climate influences on the geographical distribution and sustained development of these ecosystems. Over the past three glacial-interglacial cycles, framework-forming cold-water corals (Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata) seem to have predominantly populated reefs, canyons, and patches in the temperate East Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Above 50 degrees N corals colonize reefs in the northern East Atlantic primarily during warm climate periods with the biogeographic limit advancing from similar to 50 degrees N to similar to 70 degrees N. We propose that north-south oscillations of the biogeographic limit of reef developments are paced by ice ages and may occur synchronously with north-south displacement of cold nutrient-rich intermediate waters and surface productivity related to changes of the polar front.