US EPA

4724348 

Journal Article 

Coral mound development at the Campeche cold-water coral province, southern Gulf of Mexico: Implications of Antarctic Intermediate Water increased influence during interglacials 

Matos, L; Wienberg, C; Titschack, J; Schmiedl, G; Frank, N; Abrantes, F; Cunha, MR; Hebbeln, D 

2017 

1 

Marine Geology
ISSN: 0025-3227
EISSN: 1872-6151 

392 

53-65 

10.1016/j.margeo.2017.08.012 

WOS:000413279600004 

Coral mounds formed by framework-forming scleractinian cold-water corals (CWC; mainly Lopheliapertusa) are a common seabed feature along the Atlantic continental margins. While coral mound areas in the NE Atlantic reveal a climate-dependent temporal pattern of CWC occurrence and mound aggradation that is related to distinct environmental conditions (e.g., productivity, water mass properties, hydrodynamics), the long-term development of CWC and coral mounds at the western side of the Atlantic is less well documented and understood. Here, we present a 260-kyr coral record from the recently described Campeche CWC province in the southern Gulf of Mexico, combined with a reconstruction of the paleo-environmental conditions for the last 140 kyr. Uranium-series dating of 26 coral samples reveals that CWC growth predominantly coincided with interglacial periods. Highest vertical mound aggradation rates of 34 to 40 cm kyr(-1) occurred during the Holocene. The reduced occurrence of CWC and the concurrent almost complete stagnation in mound aggradation during glacial periods could be linked to a diminished presence of Antarctic Intermediate Water at those intermediate depths in which the coral mounds occur. Such setting would have caused a less dynamic bottom current regime resulting in a reduced food supply to the CWC along the Campeche Bank. 

Campeche cold-water coral province; Gulf of Mexico; Antarctic Intermediate Water; Uranium-series dating; Coral mound aggradation; Benthic foraminifera