NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Punta Pitt - Ba/Ca Data 1963-1978

Lattice-bound cadmium in scleractinian corals has been shown to be a sensitive tracer of historical changes in the nutrient content of surface waters1,2. Barium also substitutes into the lattice of aragonite reef-building corals because there is solid solution between orthorhombic BaCO3 (witherite) and CaCO3(aragonite)3. It is expected that the substitution should be proportional to the Ba content of sea water, which increases from low values in warm surface waters to higher values in cold deep waters. Here we present a high-resolution coralline Ba record from the Galapagos Islands spanning the period 1965–1978. Coralline Ba/Ca tracks historical sea surface temperatures, reflecting the vertical displacement of warm nutrient-poor surface waters by cold, nutrient-rich source waters. Differences between coralline Ba and Cd records may be due to preferential uptake of Cd by phytoplankton during times of lower surface nutrients.