Carbonate budget of cold-water coral mounds along a latitudinal transect

冷水珊瑚生态系统分布在世界大陆边的沿着，具有形成土丘的潜力，这些丘的长度可达数公里，高度可达350米。迄今为止，对这些现代沉积体系的研究主要集中在其生态学、形态学和海洋学方面。CWC生态系统作为碳酸盐工厂和汇，其在全球碳循环中的作用以及该系统如何随时间发展并对过去的气候变化做出响应，人们对此知之甚少，后者受到重力岩心短缺和缺乏可靠的年龄测定方法的限制。根据现有的核心材料，拟议的项目将首次评估从挪威北方到毛里塔尼亚的一个纬度断面沿着冷水珊瑚工厂的碳酸盐收支，包括地中海和墨西哥湾/佛罗里达海峡的例子。除了不同的海洋环境对碳酸盐预算的影响，一个重点是设置内部和内部CWC丘省的变化。此外，还将测试电子自旋共振技术，以确定冷水珊瑚的年代。该方法提供了一个机会，日期珊瑚年龄超过500万年，并可能提供一个进口的先决条件，进一步深入钻CWC丘运动。

Cold-water coral (CWC) ecosystems are represented along the world’s continental margins and have the potential to build mounds, which reach sizes of up to several kilometres in elongation and heights of up to 350 m. So far, research on these modern sedimentary systems concentrated on their ecology, morphology and oceanography. Little is known about the CWC ecosystem as carbonate factory and sink, its role in the global carbon, hence CO2, cycle and how the system developed through time and responded to past climate changes.The latter is limited by the shortness of gravity cores and the lack of reliable dating methods for deposits older than 500 ka. Based on existing core material, the proposed project will evaluate for the first time the carbonate budget of the cold-water coral factory along a latitudinal transect from northern Norway down to Mauritania including also examples from the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico/Strait of Florida. Beside the influence of different oceanographic settings on the carbonate budget, a focus is set on intra and inter CWC mound province variations. Additionally, electron spin resonance will be tested for dating cold-water corals. The method provides the opportunity to date corals older than 500 ka and might provide an import prerequisite for further deep drilling CWC mound campaigns.