Glacial-Holocene Transition in Deep-Sea Carbonates: Selective Dissolution and the Stable Isotope Signal

Abstract

The oxygen and carbon isotopic signals of planktonic Foraminifera from closely spaced samples from two box cores taken in the western equatorial Pacific change through the glacial-to-Holocene transition as a result of several factors, one of which is the Holocene dissolution pulse starting about 12,000 years ago and reaching full force shortly after. The onset of dissolution comes shortly after the maximum rate of deglaciation but well before the maximum drop in fertility in upper waters. The effect of dissolution is 20 to 30 percent of the amplitude of isotopic change in Globigerinoides sacculifer, at the depth of the present lysocline.