GEO-04 Millennial to orbital oceanic carbon cycle
U/Ca and U/Mn in foraminiferal coatings as a proxy for ocean oxygenation changes: new calibration and comparative analyses of Holocene and last peak glacial sediments
Rong Hu* , School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University
Helen C. Bostock, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia
Julia Gottschalk, Institute for Geosciences, Kiel University, Germany
Alexander M. Piotrowski, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK

Deep-sea oxygen concentrations reflect combined effects of air-sea exchange in high-latitude surface waters, ventilation through ocean circulation and the organic carbon remineralization at depth. Reconstruction of past bottom water oxygen (BWO) concentrations has been challenging due to issues with different BWO proxies inhibited by diagenetic or depositional factors. In this study, we exploit the authigenic uranium content on mixed planktonic foraminiferal coatings as a BWO proxy by presenting new foraminiferal U/Ca and U/Mn ratios of the Holocene and LGM sediments from 54 sites throughout the Pacific Ocean, covering a range of modern BWO from 0-210 μmol/kg. We observe a negative correlation of Holocene U/Ca and U/Mn with BWO, with decreasing sensitivities towards higher BWO, especially above 150 μmol/kg, validating the use of foraminiferal U/Ca and U/Mn as a BWO proxy up to this level. Based on the comparison of our foraminiferal U/Ca and U/Mn ratios between the Holocene and last glacial maximum (LGM) and existing redox proxy data, we provide new constraints on Equatorial and South Pacific oxygenation changes during the LGM. First, the boundary between better oxygenated upper ocean and less oxygenated deeper ocean in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) was limited to a narrower depth range between 617 and 712 m. Second, we observe better oxygenation in the upper and bottom waters of the Pacific Ocean and mid-depth deoxygenation, which contrasts findings in the deep Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Our study sheds new light on the application of foraminiferal U/Ca as a quantitative proxy for BWO reconstruction since the last glacial and beyond, providing an independent way to constrain the past oceanic carbon cycle.