Carbonate preservation in marine sediments

When combined with measures of organic carbon rain and calcite accumulation rates, quantitative estimates of changes in preservation can reveal variation in biogenic fluxes, the org. C to calcite flux ratio and saturation state of bottom waters.

Here we develop quantitative dissolution proxies for mid to higher latitudes based on foraminiferal test fragmentation. Examining surface sediments, we find that fragmentation in G. bulloides and G. truncatulinoides is linear with increasing seabed dissolution rate and can be used to quantify changes in carbonate preservation. G. truncatulinoides shows a constant relationship of fragmentation to dissolution.