Coral mound development at the Campeche cold-water coral province, southern Gulf of Mexico

• Verfasst von: Matos, Lélia [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Frank, Norbert [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Coral mound development at the Campeche cold-water coral province, southern Gulf of Mexico
• Titelzusatz: implications of Antarctic Intermediate Water increased influence during interglacials
• Verf.angabe: Lélia Matos, Claudia Wienberg, Jürgen Titschack, Gerhard Schmiedl, Norbert Frank, Fatima Abrantes, Marina R. Cunha, Dierk Hebbeln
• Umfang: 13 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 14.02.2018
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Marine geology
• Jahr Quelle: 2017
• Band/Heft Quelle: 392(2017), S. 53-65
• ISSN Quelle: 1872-6151
• DOI: doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2017.08.012
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 1569849420

Abstract

Coral mounds formed by framework-forming scleractinian cold-water corals (CWC; mainly Lophelia pertusa) are a common seabed feature along the Atlantic continental margins. While coral mound areas in the NE Atlantic reveal a climate-dependent temporal pattern of CWC occurrence and mound aggradation that is related to distinct environmental conditions (e.g., productivity, water mass properties, hydrodynamics), the long-term development of CWC and coral mounds at the western side of the Atlantic is less well documented and understood. Here, we present a 260-kyr coral record from the recently described Campeche CWC province in the southern Gulf of Mexico, combined with a reconstruction of the paleo-environmental conditions for the last 140kyr. Uranium-series dating of 26 coral samples reveals that CWC growth predominantly coincided with interglacial periods. Highest vertical mound aggradation rates of 34 to 40cmkyr−1 occurred during the Holocene. The reduced occurrence of CWC and the concurrent almost complete stagnation in mound aggradation during glacial periods could be linked to a diminished presence of Antarctic Intermediate Water at those intermediate depths in which the coral mounds occur. Such setting would have caused a less dynamic bottom current regime resulting in a reduced food supply to the CWC along the Campeche Bank.