Holocene Changes in the Gulf Stream and Western Sargasso Sea

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Science Summary: This study will obtain and analyze sediment cores recovered in the subtropical western North Atlantic off Cape Hatteras. Multiproxy study of the cores will be done to determine gradients in sea surface temperature and depth gradients in temperature and nutrient content. Surface water proxies will include oxygen isotope and Mg/Ca measurements of planktic foraminifers. Bottom water proxies will include oxygen and carbon isotope, Mg/Ca, Cd/Ca, and Ba/Ca of benthic foraminifers. Sample resolution of selected time-series studies for the entire Holocene will resolve millennial scale variability. More detailed sampling of the last 3,000 years will be done in several cores to study century scale variability of the late Holocene. Age models will be based on AMS 14C dates space at about 500 yr intervals.