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Science 23 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5781, pp. 1788 - 1791
DOI: 10.1126/science.1125781
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Reports

Phosphorus in Cold-Water Corals as a Proxy for Seawater Nutrient Chemistry

Paolo Montagna,1* Malcolm McCulloch,2 Marco Taviani,3 Claudio Mazzoli,4,5 Begoña Vendrell6

Phosphorus is a key macronutrient being strongly enriched in the deep ocean as a result of continuous export and remineralization of biomass from primary production. We show that phosphorus incorporated within the skeletons of the cosmopolitan cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus is directly proportional to the ambient seawater phosphorus concentration and thus may serve as a paleo-oceanographic proxy for variations in ocean productivity as well as changes in the residence times and sources of deep-water masses. The application of this tool to fossil specimens from the Mediterranean reveals phosphorus-enriched bottom waters at the end of the Younger Dryas period.

1 Istituto Centrale per la Ricerca Scientifica e Technologica Applicata al Mare (ICRAM), Via di Casalotti 300, 00166, Rome, Italy.
2 Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
3 Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy.
4 Dipartimento Mineralogia e Petrologia, Università di Padova, Corso G. Garibaldi 37, 35137 Padova, Italy.
5 Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, CNR, Corso G. Garibaldi 37, 35137 Padova, Italy.
6 Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta, 37-49 08003 Barcelona, Spain.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: p.montagna{at}icram.org

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