Reconstructing High-resolution Deep-sea Environmental Change: Inorganic Geochemical Proxy Methods of Cold-water Bamboo Corals

The cold-water bamboo coral, dwelling in the depths of global seas, is characterized by the “bamboo-like” skeletal structure of alternating calcite internodes and gorgonin nodes, and has “tree-ring-like” concentric growth rings transversally. Paleoceanograhic reconstructions using bamboo coals would fill the geographic and temporal gaps of traditional means. In this work, the inorganic geochemical proxy methods for bamboo coral are introduced, including Mg/Ca for ambient temperature, Ba/Ca for seawater nutrient content, and δ¹¹B for seawater pH. Also, the potential influences of vital effect on the proxy reconstructions are briefly discussed. With the recent findings of deep-sea bamboo coral forests in the western Pacific region, a new territory of bamboo coral paleoceanography is opened for the scientists from the nearby countries.