ALBERT

Description: The scientific objectives of METEOR cruise M84/5 focused on the measurement and analysis of the environmental controls of modern and fossil cold-water coral growth along a transect in the Bay of Biscay. In four working areas we successfully deployed lander systems and CTD/Ro’s to document the physical and hydrochemical characteristics of bottom water masses and the water column in general. These are used to shed light on potential linkages to modern cold-water coral growth and distribution. These investigations were flanked by plankton tows in surface waters. The base for all investigations was a thorough hydroacoustic survey to characterize potential cold-water coral bearing areas with living colonies. Based on these maps we deployed all video-guided gear such as the OFOS-video sled, the TV grab, and the lander systems. Benthic assemblages and sedimentary structures have been documented and sampled with the OFOS and a box corer. Simultaneously, genetic samples of the living coral material were taken for additional studies. Furthermore, we have taken gravity cores to investigate the paleoceanographic conditions as well as the timing of cold-water coral colonization in the Bay of Biscay. Along with the coring efforts, a detailed sampling and study of porewater properties was performed. An additional aim of this cruise was to investigate the influence of boundary exchange processes on the Neodymium isotopy in bottom waters along the pathway of the Mediterranean Outflow water (MOW) by taking multiple samples with the CTD/Ro. The new data and samples of this METEOR cruise will provide the framework to investigate the timing of cold-water coral colonization in the Bay of Biscay, as well as its interplay with the ambient hydrography and geochemistry. This successful cruise has provided the basis to investigate the scientific aims of this expedition in great detail.

Description: Corals exert a strong biological control over their calcification processes, but there is a lack of knowledge on their capability of long-term acclimatization to ocean acidification (OA). We used a dual geochemical proxy approach to estimate the calcifying fluid pH (pHcf) and carbonate chemistry of a Mediterranean coral (Balanophyllia europaea) naturally growing along a pH gradient (range: pHTS 8.07–7.74). The pHcf derived from skeletal boron isotopic composition (δ11B) was 0.3–0.6 units above seawater values and homogeneous along the gradient (mean ± SEM: Site 1 = 8.39 ± 0.03, Site 2 = 8.34 ± 0.03, Site 3 = 8.34 ± 0.02). Also carbonate ion concentration derived from B/Ca was homogeneous [mean ± SEM (μmol kg–1): Site 1 = 579 ± 34, Site 2 = 541 ± 27, Site 3 = 568 ± 30] regardless of seawater pH. Furthermore, gross calcification rate (GCR, mass of CaCO3 deposited on the skeletal unit area per unit of time), estimated by a “bio-inorganic model” (IpHRAC), was homogeneous with decreasing pH. The homogeneous GCR, internal pH and carbonate chemistry confirm that the features of the “building blocks” – the fundamental structural components – produced by the biomineralization process were substantially unaffected by increased acidification. Furthermore, the pH up-regulation observed in this study could potentially explain the previous hypothesis that less “building blocks” are produced with increasing acidification ultimately leading to increased skeletal porosity and to reduced net calcification rate computed by including the total volume of the pore space. In fact, assuming that the available energy at the three sites is the same, this energy at the low pH sites could be partitioned among fewer calicoblastic cells that consume more energy given the larger difference between external and internal pH compared to the control, leading to the production of less building blocks (i.e., formation of pores inside the skeleton structure, determining increased porosity). However, we cannot exclude that also dissolution may play a role in increasing porosity. Thus, the ability of scleractinian corals to maintain elevated pHcf relative to ambient seawater might not always be sufficient to counteract declines in net calcification under OA scenarios.

Description: Coral-based reconstructions of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) using Sr/Ca, U/Ca and δ18O are important tools for quantitative analysis of past climate variabilities. However, post-depositional alteration of coral aragonite, particularly early diagenesis, restrict the accuracy of calibrated proxies even on young corals. Considering the diagenetic effects, we present new Mid to Late Holocene SST reconstructions on well-dated (U/Th: ∼70 yr to 5.4 ka) fossil Porites sp. collected from the Society Islands, French Polynesia. For few corals, quality pre-screening routines revealed the presence of secondary aragonite needles inside primary pore space, resulting in a mean increase in Sr/Ca ratios between 5-30%, in contrast to the massive skeletal parts. Characterized by a Sr/Ca above 10 mmol/mol, we interpret this value as the threshold between diagenetically altered and unaltered coral material. At a high-resolution, observed intra-skeletal variability of 5.4 to 9.9 mmol/mol probably reflects the physiological control of corals over their trace metal uptake, and individual variations controlled by CaCO3– precipitation rates. Overall, the Sr/Ca, U/Ca and δ18O trends are well correlated, but we observed a significant offset up to ± 7°C among the proxies on derived palaeo-SST estimates. It appears that the related alteration process tends to amplify temperature extremes, resulting in increased SST-U/Ca and SST-Sr/Ca gradients, and consequently their apparent temperature sensitivities. A relative SST reconstruction is still feasible by normalizing our records to their individual mean value defined as ΔSST. This approach shows that ΔSST records derived from different proxies agree with an amplitudinal variability of up to ± 2°C with respect to their Holocene mean value. Higher ΔSST values than the mean SSTs (Holocene warm periods) were recorded from ∼1.8 to ∼2.8 ka (Interval I), ∼3.7 to 4.0 ka (Interval III) and before ∼5 ka, while lower ΔSST values (Holocene cold periods, Interval II and IV) were recorded in between. The ensuing SST periodicity of ∼1.5 ka in the Society Islands record is in line with the solar activity reconstructed from 10Be and 14C production (Vonmoos et al., 2006), emphasizing the role of solar activity on climate variability during the Late Holocene.