van de Flierdt, T;
Griffiths, AM;
Lambelet, M;
Little, SH;
Stichel, T;
Wilson, DJ;
(2016)
Neodymium in the oceans: a global database, a regional comparison and implications for palaeoceanographic research.
Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
, 374
(2081)
10.1098/rsta.2015.0293.
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Abstract
The neodymium (Nd) isotopic composition of seawater has been used extensively to reconstruct ocean circulation on a variety of time scales. However, dissolved neodymium concentrations and isotopes do not always behave conservatively, and quantitative deconvolution of this non-conservative component can be used to detect trace metal inputs and isotopic exchange at ocean-sediment interfaces. In order to facilitate such comparisons for historical datasets, we here provide an extended global database for Nd isotopes and concentrations in the context of hydrography and nutrients. Since 2010, combined datasets for a large range of trace elements and isotopes are collected on international GEOTRACES section cruises, alongside classical nutrient and hydrography measurements. Here, we take a first step towards exploiting these datasets by comparing high-resolution Nd sections for the western and eastern North Atlantic in the context of hydrography, nutrients and aluminium (Al) concentrations. Evaluating those data in tracer-tracer space reveals that North Atlantic seawater Nd isotopes and concentrations generally follow the patterns of advection, as do Al concentrations. Deviations from water mass mixing are observed locally, associated with the addition or removal of trace metals in benthic nepheloid layers, exchange with ocean margins (i.e. boundary exchange) and/or exchange with particulate phases (i.e. reversible scavenging). We emphasize that the complexity of some of the new datasets cautions against a quantitative interpretation of individual palaeo Nd isotope records, and indicates the importance of spatial reconstructions for a more balanced approach to deciphering past ocean changes.This article is part of the themed issue 'Biological and climatic impacts of ocean trace element chemistry'.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Neodymium in the oceans: a global database, a regional comparison and implications for palaeoceanographic research. |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsta.2015.0293 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0293 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | ©2016 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | dissolved aluminium concentrations, dissolved neodymium concentrations, dissolved neodymium isotopes, geotraces, palaeoceanography, seawater |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10056586 |
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