Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification

Salinity-related stratification in marine environments is one of the main drivers for the development of persistent anoxia and euxinia. It therefore plays a vital role in the sedimentary preservation of organic matter and has also been associated with Oceanic Anoxic Events during several mass extinc...

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Main Authors: Tulipani, Svenja, Grice, Kliti, Greenwood, Paul, Schwark, Lorenz, Böttcher, M., Summons, R., Foster, C.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier Science BV 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34594
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author Tulipani, Svenja
Grice, Kliti
Greenwood, Paul
Schwark, Lorenz
Böttcher, M.
Summons, R.
Foster, C.
author_facet Tulipani, Svenja
Grice, Kliti
Greenwood, Paul
Schwark, Lorenz
Böttcher, M.
Summons, R.
Foster, C.
author_sort Tulipani, Svenja
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Salinity-related stratification in marine environments is one of the main drivers for the development of persistent anoxia and euxinia. It therefore plays a vital role in the sedimentary preservation of organic matter and has also been associated with Oceanic Anoxic Events during several mass extinctions in Earth's history. Here we present a novel molecular proxy using relative abundances of methyltrimethyltridecylchromans (MTTCs) as indicators of riverine freshwater incursions into Middle to Late Devonian paleoreefs exposed to conditions of prevailing anoxia, photic zone euxinia and water column stratification. This paper aims at re-instigating a discussion about the origin of these compounds to potentially broaden their utilization as paleoproxies, adding freshwater stratification to the general salinity reconstructions. The co-variation of MTTC abundance profiles and δ13C values with other biomarker parameters in the sediments studied here indicate a link of MTTCs to terrigenous input, pointing towards a previously suggested early diagenetic formation of these compounds from phytol with higher plant-derived alkylphenols.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2015
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-345942017-09-13T16:08:11Z Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification Tulipani, Svenja Grice, Kliti Greenwood, Paul Schwark, Lorenz Böttcher, M. Summons, R. Foster, C. Salinity-related stratification in marine environments is one of the main drivers for the development of persistent anoxia and euxinia. It therefore plays a vital role in the sedimentary preservation of organic matter and has also been associated with Oceanic Anoxic Events during several mass extinctions in Earth's history. Here we present a novel molecular proxy using relative abundances of methyltrimethyltridecylchromans (MTTCs) as indicators of riverine freshwater incursions into Middle to Late Devonian paleoreefs exposed to conditions of prevailing anoxia, photic zone euxinia and water column stratification. This paper aims at re-instigating a discussion about the origin of these compounds to potentially broaden their utilization as paleoproxies, adding freshwater stratification to the general salinity reconstructions. The co-variation of MTTC abundance profiles and δ13C values with other biomarker parameters in the sediments studied here indicate a link of MTTCs to terrigenous input, pointing towards a previously suggested early diagenetic formation of these compounds from phytol with higher plant-derived alkylphenols. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34594 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.05.009 Elsevier Science BV fulltext
spellingShingle Tulipani, Svenja
Grice, Kliti
Greenwood, Paul
Schwark, Lorenz
Böttcher, M.
Summons, R.
Foster, C.
Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification
title Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification
title_full Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification
title_fullStr Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification
title_full_unstemmed Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification
title_short Molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification
title_sort molecular proxies as indicators of freshwater incursion-driven salinity stratification
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34594