Geological Society of America

T89 Advances in Ocean and Climate Reconstructions from Environmental Proxies

Monday, 23 September 2019
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 228AB, North Building

SEASONALITY IN MARINE ARCHIVES: IMPLICATIONS OF HIGH-RESOLUTION DATA FOR ASSESSING ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE

Paper number: T89-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 9:15 AM

Authors

Meghan Zulian Presenting Author
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Meghan Zulian Presenting Author
University of California Davis, Davis, CA
Jan Fietzke
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, ON
Jochen Halfar
University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
Bernd R. Schöne
University of Mainz, Mainz
Natasha Leclerc
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON

Abstract

To predict the resilience of ecosystems to future environmental change, we often assess their experience with past environmental variability. Seasonal variability, as confirmed by long-term monitoring, is often of equal or greater magnitude than inter-annual or inter-decadal variability. Constraining past seasonal dynamics is therefore critical in predicting the response of organisms and ecosystems to future environmental change. Despite widespread agreement on the importance of seasonal dynamics, centennial and multi-centennial paleoclimate archives are often at annual or lower resolution. To assess bias introduced by annual averaging, we will examine sub-annual d¹¹B and d¹³C archives in annually-banded, long-lived, benthic calcifying red algae from the Canadian Arctic, using LA-MC-ICMPS (laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled mass spectrometry). We will compare magnitudes of sub-annual and inter-annual variability recorded by the algae, examining the importance of constraining seasonal shut down of proxy organisms, and how this influences climate archives. We will also compare sub-annual laser derived d¹³C records with conventional bulk sampling methods, highlighting the importance of integrating bulk and laser derived data. We will then contrast sub-annual variability recorded in Arctic coralline algae with that of other latitudes, to discuss the relative vulnerabilities of different ecosystems.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019AM-337439

© Copyright 2019 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.