Abstract
Abstract. The Antarctic coastal zone is an area of high primary productivity,
particularly within coastal polynyas, where large phytoplankton blooms and
drawdown of CO2 occur. Reconstruction of historical primary
productivity changes and the associated driving factors could provide
baseline insights on the role of these areas as sinks for atmospheric
CO2, especially in the context of projected changes in coastal
Antarctic sea ice. Here we investigate the potential for using carbon
isotopes (δ13C) of fatty acids in marine sediments as a proxy
for primary productivity. We use a highly resolved sediment core from off
the coast of Adélie Land spanning the last ∼ 400 years and
monitor changes in the concentrations and δ13C of fatty acids
along with other proxy data from the same core. We discuss the different
possible drivers of their variability and argue that C24 fatty acid
δ13C predominantly reflects phytoplankton productivity in open-water environments, while C18 fatty acid δ13C reflects
productivity in the marginal ice zone. These new proxies have implications
for better understanding carbon cycle dynamics in the Antarctica coastal
zone in future palaeoclimate studies.
Funder
European Commission
Natural Environment Research Council
Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies
Subject
Earth-Surface Processes,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
5 articles.
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