Relationships between Abyssal Redox Conditions and Rock Magnetic Properties of Surficial Sediments in the Western Pacific

Reconstructing changes in deep/bottom-water redox conditions are critical for understanding the role of the deep ocean in global carbon and metals cycling; nevertheless, the quantitative relationships between redox proxies and abyssal dissolved oxygen are poorly investigated. In this work, we studie...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yanping Chen, Dong Xu, Huafeng Qin, Geng Liu, Yibing Li, Weiwei Chen, Liang Yi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-05-01
Series:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/11/6/1132
Description
Summary:Reconstructing changes in deep/bottom-water redox conditions are critical for understanding the role of the deep ocean in global carbon and metals cycling; nevertheless, the quantitative relationships between redox proxies and abyssal dissolved oxygen are poorly investigated. In this work, we studied the rock magnetic properties of surficial sediments in the western Pacific to investigate their relationship with regional redox conditions. Our results reveal a consistent sedimentary magnetic mineral assemblage in the western Pacific, dominated by pseudo-single-domain magnetite (Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>), while the ratio of detrital and biogenic magnetite particles in different sites varies substantially. Detailed analyses identified two major magnetic-coercivity components, with modal coercivity values of 13.1 ± 1.6 mT and 54.7 ± 5.3 mT, respectively. All the magnetic parameters we measured, including both concentration-dependent and grainsize-dependent parameters, and the magnetic coercivities, are generally correlated to sedimentary redox conditions; however, the coercivities obtained by mathematical unmixing exhibit a stronger linkage, explaining about a quarter of variance of redox changes. Our findings confirm the potential of magnetic properties for tracing abyssal redox changes in the western Pacific, while the observed magnetic-redox relationships are complex and need further investigation.
ISSN:2077-1312