Abstract
Lattice-bound cadmium in scleractinian corals is a sensitive chemical tracer of historical natural and anthropogenic perturbations to the surface ocean. Cadmium, a biologically-mediated trace constituent of sea water, is distributed analogously to the nutrients, phosphate and nitrate. Under normal circumstances, biological activity depletes surface ocean nutrient and cadmium concentrations. Two corals we have analysed from the Galapagos Islands and North Rock, Bermuda, however, exhibit striking fluctuations in skeletal cadmium within the past century. These variations appear to have occurred in response to two separate phenomena: (1) variable upwelling at Galapagos (El Niño – Southern Oscillation events) and (2) aeolian fluxes of twentieth century, North American industrial cadmium to the western North Atlantic.
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Shen, G., Boyle, E. & Lea, D. Cadmium in corals as a tracer of historical upwelling and industrial fallout. Nature 328, 794–796 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/328794a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/328794a0
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