Phosphorus in cold-water corals as a proxy for seawater nutrient chemistry |
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Authors: | Montagna Paolo McCulloch Malcolm Taviani Marco Mazzoli Claudio Vendrell Begoña |
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Institution: | Istituto Centrale per la Ricerca Scientifica e Technologica Applicata al Mare (ICRAM), Via di Casalotti 300, 00166, Rome, Italy. p.montagna@icram.org |
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Abstract: | Phosphorus is a key macronutrient being strongly enriched in the deep ocean as a result of continuous export and remineralization of biomass from primary production. We show that phosphorus incorporated within the skeletons of the cosmopolitan cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus is directly proportional to the ambient seawater phosphorus concentration and thus may serve as a paleo-oceanographic proxy for variations in ocean productivity as well as changes in the residence times and sources of deep-water masses. The application of this tool to fossil specimens from the Mediterranean reveals phosphorus-enriched bottom waters at the end of the Younger Dryas period. |
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