Equatorward sedimentary shadows of near-surface oceanographic patterns.

BOLTOVSKOY DEMETRIO

Speculations in Science and Technology

Kluwer Academic Publishers

Lugar: Asterdam; Año: 1988 vol. 11 p. 219 - 232

0155-7785

For most shelled plankters distributional patterns in the sediments are indicative of colder near-surface waters that those overlying the corresponding areas. A complementary or, sometimes, alternative explanation is offered for these disagreements: submersion of live colder-water organisms under warmer waters and subsequent death and sedimentation in a lower latitude zone might better account for many of the mismatching patterns reported than selective dissolution, differential productivity, reworking of colder (older) sediments, and lateral advection by bottom currents. Unless they are destroyed in the grazing process, phytoplanktonic cells are also susceptible to considerable subsurface transport and subsequent sedimentation in a lower latitude area within the gut contents of their consumers. Integration of low densities over large depth intervals, differential mortality rates and lack of reproduction of the expatriates can enhance the influence of this mechanism on extrapolar sedimentary assemblages.