Corals, currents, and phytoplankton: Reconstructing 3000 years of circulation and marine productivity in the world's largest ocean gyre

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

We propose to use black corals, a new high-resolution ocean archive, to study circulation andproductivity in waters around New Zealand over the last 3 millennia. These deep-sea corals areexceedingly long-lived, depositing proteinaceous skeletons that capture the chemical compositionof the plankton debris upon which they feed. Thus they preserve a history of the surface ocean overthousands of years. Using specimens from the extensive collection held by NIWA, we will generaterecords of nitrogen and carbon isotopes and trace elements which are a powerful combination ofproxies for ocean circulation and productivity. The result will be a comprehensive portrait of SouthPacific Gyre dynamics, and their impact on marine primary productivity in the southwest PacificOcean.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/10/1730/04/20

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