Nd isotopes in deep-sea corals in the North-eastern Atlantic

Abstract Neodymium (Nd) concentrations and isotopic signatures of living and fossil deep-sea coral species Lophelia pertusa , Desmophyllum dianthus and Madrepora oculata from the northeast Atlantic Ocean have been investigated in order to test the ability of deep-sea corals to reconstruct the seawater Nd isotopic signature and past changes of ocean circulation in the eastern North Atlantic. Small quantities of Nd—less than 45 ng/g—are incorporated into the aragonite skeleton of living deep-sea corals that dwell at upper intermediate depths throughout the Northeast Atlantic. Rigorous cleaning techniques are needed in order to avoid Nd contamination from manganese-oxide and iron hydroxide coatings. Moreover, Nd isotopic compositions have been measured using thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) by Nd-oxide method. Our data indicate that the isotopic signatures of modern corals are similar to those of adjacent water masses, implying that deep-sea corals can serve as an archive of the seawater Nd isotopic compositions in the past. The first results from few fully-cleaned fossils corals collected within the Porcupine Seabight and the southwest Rockall Bank reveal significantly higher eNd for corals dated between 150 ± 40 and 3060 ± 90 yrs than those of the living corals located in similar areas. This suggests rapid hydrological variations along the eastern margin of the North Atlantic Ocean at intermediate water depth with higher contribution of the Mediterranean Overflow Waters (MOW) or other temperate Atlantic mid-depth water masses (ENACW or NAC) in the past.