Suitability of the Coralline Alga <i>Clathromorphum compactum</i> as an Arctic Archive for Past Sea Ice Cover

Leclerc, Natasha; Halfar, Jochen; Hetzinger, Steffen; Chan, P.; Adey, Walter H.; Tsay, Alexandra; Brossier, Eric; Kronz, Andreas

doi:10.1029/2021pa004286

Cited by 7 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…When growth increments are strongly related to a single environmental variable, this variable is often the dominant variable changing interannually. For example, growth increments from the coralline red alga Clathromorphum compactum have been shown to strongly correlate with sea ice cover but only in high Arctic regions were sea ice is likely to be the dominant interannual variable (Leclerc et al, 2021).…”

Section: Dating Methods For Biogenic Environmental Proxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, reliable highly resolved baseline environmental data required to understand Arctic environments of the past can only be provided by proxy records. The arctic and subarctic coralline red algae species, Clathromorphum compactum, has been used to produce multi-century, annually resolved proxy timeseries of temperature, sea ice, runoff, primary productivity, and multidecadal climate oscillations (Halfar et al, 2008;Halfar et al, 2011;Hetzinger et al, 2011;Halfar et al, 2013;Chan et al, 2017;Hou et al, 2018;Hetzinger et al, 2019;Hetzinger et al, 2021;Leclerc et al, 2021). This species' high-magnesium calcium carbonate skeleton consists of annual calcified growth increments produced at a rate relative to surrounding sea surface temperature (SST) and sunlight access (Williams et al, 2018a) (Figure 1).…”

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the latter study also showed insignificant inter-sample correlations of growth increment widths, stating that potentially chiton predation pressure and other variables can have a larger impact on inter-sample growth variability. This may be more common in warmer subarctic sites due to the relationship between warmer temperatures and predation (Adey and Steneck, 2001;Williams et al, 2018a;Leclerc et al, 2021). Further, the Siebert et al (2020) and Hetzinger et al (2018) studies downsampled Mg/Ca ratio data to a 12-value/year resolution that follows a cyclical pattern every year.…”

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, these findings are insufficient to demonstrate that Mg/Ca data were synchronous between specimens without crossdating. On the other hand, high arctic sites have produced algal growth increments that correspond strongly to sea ice conditions (Leclerc et al, 2021), suggesting that growth is being controlled by a common variable and that growth should be synchronous. Nevertheless, low inter-sample replicability has been found at many high arctic sites (Hetzinger et al, 2019;Leclerc et al, 2021).…”

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, high arctic sites have produced algal growth increments that correspond strongly to sea ice conditions (Leclerc et al, 2021), suggesting that growth is being controlled by a common variable and that growth should be synchronous. Nevertheless, low inter-sample replicability has been found at many high arctic sites (Hetzinger et al, 2019;Leclerc et al, 2021). This may be due to the narrower increments produced in the high Arctic, which may be more likely to be missed and cause dating errors, as has been demonstrated in other biogenic proxies (Black et al, 2016).…”

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

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Utility of Dendrochronology Crossdating Methods in the Development of Arctic Coralline Red Algae Clathromorphum compactum Growth Increment Chronology for Sea Ice Cover Reconstruction

et al. 2022

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Paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstructions from increment-yielding archives strongly depend on precise age models. Like bivalves, corals, trees, and speleothems, the coralline alga Clathromorphum compactum produces annual growth increments and shows considerable promise as an environmental archive for arctic and subarctic regions. Though their growth increment widths correlate with temperature and sea ice cover in high Arctic regions, existing timeseries have not been crossdated. In fact, previous studies have shown a lack of inter-sample correlation in non-crossdated timeseries suggesting possible age model dating errors. Here, we use dendrochronology crossdating techniques and COFECHA software to ensure and validate synchrony between C. compactum timeseries (<141 years) from three specimens collected near Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada. Results showed that non-crossdated timeseries constructed by four coralline red algae researchers using annual increments of the same C. compactum samples were highly variable and showcase the likelihood of dating errors in non-crossdated timeseries. Crossdating improved inter-series correlations, and correlations to sea ice-related records, suggesting that at least three crossdated timeseries are required to isolate paleoclimate signals. Our findings suggest that future reconstructions with C. compactum should employ crossdating techniques to reduce dating errors and allow for more precise climate reconstructions.Lay AbstractLong-term environmental records provide a critical baseline to examine how humans have impacted Earth’s natural climate. An important piece to consider is sea ice’s role in natural climate variability because its brightness limits warming by reflecting solar irradiation back to space. However, instrumental records of sea ice rarely extend beyond the early satellite era (late 1970s), limiting our understanding of how sea ice affects natural climate variability in the preindustrial era. A lack of historical baseline prompted the development of sea ice proxies, including the long-lived marine alga, Clathromorphum compactum. Similar to tree-rings, C. compactum produces a new mineralized layer each year, and layer thicknesses have been shown to respond to sea ice cover, making them useful to record long-term sea ice variability. However, a recent study showed that records had replicability problems, maybe due to dating mistakes. Our study applies tree-ring dating methods (dendrochronology) to match annual algal growth layers across algal specimens. Results showed that these new methods reduced dating errors, allowing for more precise past sea ice cover reconstructions.

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Section: Dating Methods For Biogenic Environmental Proxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Application Of Crossdating To Coralline Red Algaementioning

confidence: 99%

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Utility of Dendrochronology Crossdating Methods in the Development of Arctic Coralline Red Algae Clathromorphum compactum Growth Increment Chronology for Sea Ice Cover Reconstruction

et al. 2022

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Linear extension and calcification rates in a cold‐water, crustose coralline alga are modulated by temperature, light, and salinity

Gould,

Ries

2023

Limnology & Oceanography

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Long‐lived crustose coralline algae are important ecosystem engineers and environmental archives in regions where observations of climate variability are sparse. Clathromorphum compactum is a cold‐water alga that precipitates calcite that serve as archives of change at annual to sub‐annual resolution. Understanding how environmental variability impacts the growth of this species is imperative for application in paleoclimate research, and for evaluating its vulnerability to change. Here, we present the results of the first, to‐our‐knowledge, controlled laboratory experiment isolating the effects of light, temperature, and salinity on calcification rates of C. compactum. Algal calcification rates were modulated by a combination of light exposure, salinity, and temperature, where temperature and salinity were positively correlated, and light level was negatively correlated with calcification rate. Linear extension of the skeleton also varied with treatment conditions, with the epithallial and perithallial layers of skeleton responding differently. Epithallial extension increased with salinity, while perithallial extension was governed only by a positive parabolic relationship with temperature. These results suggest that C. compactum growth will be impacted by environmental changes predicted for the Arctic over the coming decades. While increased temperature in the region may facilitate calcification in the algae, reductions in salinity associated with increased sea ice melt, and potentially increased light levels, may counteract this effect. The negative impact of increased light levels on algal calcification observed may not reflect the true impact of light availability on growth associated with a lengthening of the growing season (not evaluated in this study) accompanying reductions in annual sea‐ice.

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Attached and free-living crustose coralline algae and their functional traits in the geological record and today

Teichert

2024

Facies

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Crustose coralline algae (CCA) are important ecosystem engineers and carbonate producers today and in the geological past. While there is an increasing number of publications on CCA every year, it is evident that there are many misunderstandings and inconsistencies in the assignment of CCA to taxonomic and functional groups. This is partly because CCA are treated by biologists, ecologists and palaeontologists as well as covered by studies published in journals ranging from geo- to biosciences, so that there is often a mixture of terminology used and differing scientific focus. In this review, a comprehensive overview is given on what is known about CCA, their functional traits and their roles in environments from the present and the past. In this context, some bridges are built between the commonly different viewpoints of ecologists and palaeontologists, including suggesting a common and straightforward terminology, highlighting and partially merging different taxonomic viewpoints as well as summarizing the most important functional traits of CCA. Ideally, future studies should seek to quantitatively analyse potential implications for CCA and their associated organisms under ongoing global change.

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Suitability of the Coralline Alga Clathromorphum compactum as an Arctic Archive for Past Sea Ice Cover

Cited by 7 publications

References 82 publications

Utility of Dendrochronology Crossdating Methods in the Development of Arctic Coralline Red Algae Clathromorphum compactum Growth Increment Chronology for Sea Ice Cover Reconstruction

Utility of Dendrochronology Crossdating Methods in the Development of Arctic Coralline Red Algae Clathromorphum compactum Growth Increment Chronology for Sea Ice Cover Reconstruction

Linear extension and calcification rates in a cold‐water, crustose coralline alga are modulated by temperature, light, and salinity

Attached and free-living crustose coralline algae and their functional traits in the geological record and today

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