Rodríguez Marrero, Luis G.

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    Application of the Sr-U coral paleo-thermometer to reconstruct sea surface temperatures during the Mid-Holocene using corals from Cañada Honda, Dominican Republic
    (2018-05) Rodríguez Marrero, Luis G.; Ramírez Martínez, Wilson R.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Winter, Amos; Santos Mercado, Hernán; Hudgins, Thomas R.; Rodríguez Iglesias, Lizzette A.; Department of Geology; Zapata Medina, Rocío
    The skeletons of massive corals provide important seasonally resolved archives of past climate as they provide strong temporal constraints. Current coral paleo thermometers (δ18O and Sr/Ca) have proven to provide valuable insight on climate, but present important uncertainty due to internal controls of the coral organism. These thermometers rely on calibrations produced with living coral tissue and instrumental sea surface temperature (SST), this leaves their application on long dead and fossil corals uncertain. In this study, a new multi element coral thermometer (Sr-U), which relies on an external calibration, is applied on fossil corals from the Mid-Holocene originating from the complete reef exposures in the Enriquillo Valley, Dominican Republic. These exposures have proven to be pristinely preserved, with no major changes to original mineralogy. Consistent with other studies, Ba/Ca values from these corals suggests significant meteoric input from rivers and groundwater into the environment these corals lived in. Results from the Sr-U thermometer are also compared to Sr/Ca results consistent with past studies in the location. Three corals from this location dating to 8047 ± 26 yrs BP, 6,427± 81 yrs BP and 5,199 ± 26 yrs BP (U/Th dates) were analyzed for Strontium, Barium and Uranium at seasonal resolutions. Results from the Sr-U thermometer show SSTs less than 0.5oC cooler and variabilities consistent with measured preindustrial SST for this location. Results from Sr/Ca thermometers show unrealistic cooler SST (up to 10oC cooler) and variability not present in this area. Other paleoclimate proxies show that the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean were slightly cooler than pre-industrial climate. These results are encouraging to the continued use of Sr-U to derive accurate SST from fossil material.