The giant Mauritanian cold-water coral mound province: Oxygen control on coral mound formation
The largest coherent cold-water coral (CWC) mound province in the Atlantic Ocean exists along the Mauritanian margin, where up to 100m high mounds extend over a distance of ∼400km, arranged in two slope-parallel chains in 400-550m water depth. Additionally, CWCs are present in the numerous submarine...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
20 February 2018
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| In: |
Quaternary science reviews
Year: 2018, Volume: 185, Pages: 135-152 |
| ISSN: | 0277-3791 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.02.012 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.02.012 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379117304729 
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| Author Notes: | Claudia Wienberg, Jürgen Titschack, André Freiwald, Norbert Frank, Tomas Lundälv, Marco Taviani, Lydia Beuck, Andrea Schröder-Ritzrau, Thomas Krengel, Dierk Hebbeln |
| Summary: | The largest coherent cold-water coral (CWC) mound province in the Atlantic Ocean exists along the Mauritanian margin, where up to 100m high mounds extend over a distance of ∼400km, arranged in two slope-parallel chains in 400-550m water depth. Additionally, CWCs are present in the numerous submarine canyons with isolated coral mounds being developed on some canyon flanks. Seventy-seven Uranium-series coral ages were assessed to elucidate the timing of CWC colonisation and coral mound development along the Mauritanian margin for the last ∼120,000 years. Our results show that CWCs were present on the mounds during the Last Interglacial, though in low numbers corresponding to coral mound aggradation rates of 16cmkyr−1. Most prolific periods for CWC growth are identified for the last glacial and deglaciation, resulting in enhanced mound aggradation (>1000cmkyr−1), before mound formation stagnated along the entire margin with the onset of the Holocene. Until today, the Mauritanian mounds are in a dormant state with only scarce CWC growth. In the canyons, live CWCs are abundant since the Late Holocene at least. Thus, the canyons may serve as a refuge to CWCs potentially enabling the observed modest re-colonisation pulse on the mounds along the open slope. The timing and rate of the pre-Holocene coral mound aggradation, and the cessation of mound formation varied between the individual mounds, which was likely the consequence of vertical/lateral changes in water mass structure that placed the mounds near or out of oxygen-depleted waters, respectively. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 17.03.2020 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 0277-3791 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.02.012 |