Radiocarbon age differences between coexisting foraminiferal species

Wallace Broecker, Katsumi Matsumoto, Elizabeth Clark, Irka Hajdas, Georges Bonani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

Radiocarbon-age measurements on single species of foraminifera from a core on the Ceara Rise demonstrate the importance of the joint effect of bioturbation and variable rain abundance of foraminifera. The relatively high mixed layer ages for Pulleniatina obliquiloculata reflect, at least in part, an early Holocene peak in its abundance while the relatively young ages for Globorotalia menardii reflect the delay until mid Holocene of its reappearance in the Atlantic Ocean. These results clearly demonstrate that core-top sediment samples need not be representative foraminifera falling from today's surface ocean. Rather, at least on the Ceara Rise, such samples consist of a composite of changing species groupings. These results also reconfirm the pitfalls associated with attempts to reconstruct the radiocarbon age of deep ocean water on the basis of benthic-planktonic foraminiferal age differences.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)431-436
Number of pages6
JournalPaleoceanography
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1999

Bibliographical note

Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Radiocarbon age differences between coexisting foraminiferal species'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this