TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing the impact of bioturbation on sedimentary isotopic records through numerical models
AU - Hülse, Dominik
AU - Vervoort, Pam
AU - van de Velde, Sebastiaan J.
AU - Kanzaki, Yoshiki
AU - Boudreau, Bernard
AU - Arndt, Sandra
AU - Bottjer, David J.
AU - Hoogakker, Babette
AU - Kuderer, Matthias
AU - Middelburg, Jack J.
AU - Volkenborn, Nils
AU - Kirtland Turner, Sandra
AU - Ridgwell, Andy
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper arose from a workshop on “Instigating a Mechanistic Understanding of the Dynamics of the Sedimentary record (‘iMUDS’)” that was sponsored by the Heising-Simons foundation. We would like to thank Stephen Meyers (UW-Madison) and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive critiques and suggestions that have improved this paper. We thank Martin Trauth for developing the original TURBO2 model. DH is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Simons Foundation (Award 653829). SJV is supported by the Belgian Science Policy office (BELSPO, Grant No. FED-tWIN2019-prf-008). DH, PV, YK, AR and SKT acknowledge support from the Heising-Simons Foundation (Grant No. #2015–145). BH acknowledges support from UKRI Future Leaders GrantMR/S034293/1. MK and JJM thank support from the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW).
Funding Information:
This paper arose from a workshop on “Instigating a Mechanistic Understanding of the Dynamics of the Sedimentary record (‘iMUDS’)” that was sponsored by the Heising-Simons foundation . We would like to thank Stephen Meyers (UW-Madison) and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive critiques and suggestions that have improved this paper. We thank Martin Trauth for developing the original TURBO2 model. DH is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Simons Foundation ( Award 653829 ). SJV is supported by the Belgian Science Policy office (BELSPO, Grant No. FED-tWIN2019-prf-008 ). DH, PV, YK, AR and SKT acknowledge support from the Heising-Simons Foundation (Grant No. #2015–145 ). BH acknowledges support from UKRI Future Leaders Grant MR/S034293/1 . MK and JJM thank support from the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - The disturbance of seafloor sediments by the activities of bottom-dwelling organisms, known as bioturbation, significantly alters the marine paleorecord by redistributing particles in the upper sediment layers. Consequently, ‘proxy’ signals recorded in these sediment particles, such as the size, abundance, or isotopic composition of plankton shells, are distorted by particle mixing. Accordingly, bioturbation can alter the apparent timing, duration, and magnitude of recorded events by smoothing climatic and oceanographic signals. In an extreme scenario, biological mixing can significantly obscure our view of the past by homogenizing the bioturbated layer, destroying sediment layering, and distorting the relative timing and intensity of past climatological events. Here we explore how bioturbation distorts proxy records of environmental events from a modeling perspective. First, we provide an overview and comparison of different numerical models created for simulating the movement and structural alteration of sediment by bioturbation. Next, we use an updated particle resolving model – iTURBO2 – to illustrate how various modes and intensities of bioturbation distort the signature of past climatological events, considering a range of conceptual shapes of vertical proxy profiles. Finally, we demonstrate how sampled proxy records can differ due to the combined effects of particle mixing and differential abundance changes that often concur with environmental transitions. We make the iTURBO2 MATLAB code openly available to facilitate further exploration of proxy biases due to bioturbation to aid the interpretation of the climatological record preserved in marine sediments.
AB - The disturbance of seafloor sediments by the activities of bottom-dwelling organisms, known as bioturbation, significantly alters the marine paleorecord by redistributing particles in the upper sediment layers. Consequently, ‘proxy’ signals recorded in these sediment particles, such as the size, abundance, or isotopic composition of plankton shells, are distorted by particle mixing. Accordingly, bioturbation can alter the apparent timing, duration, and magnitude of recorded events by smoothing climatic and oceanographic signals. In an extreme scenario, biological mixing can significantly obscure our view of the past by homogenizing the bioturbated layer, destroying sediment layering, and distorting the relative timing and intensity of past climatological events. Here we explore how bioturbation distorts proxy records of environmental events from a modeling perspective. First, we provide an overview and comparison of different numerical models created for simulating the movement and structural alteration of sediment by bioturbation. Next, we use an updated particle resolving model – iTURBO2 – to illustrate how various modes and intensities of bioturbation distort the signature of past climatological events, considering a range of conceptual shapes of vertical proxy profiles. Finally, we demonstrate how sampled proxy records can differ due to the combined effects of particle mixing and differential abundance changes that often concur with environmental transitions. We make the iTURBO2 MATLAB code openly available to facilitate further exploration of proxy biases due to bioturbation to aid the interpretation of the climatological record preserved in marine sediments.
KW - Bioturbation
KW - Sedimentary proxy record
KW - Paleoceanography
KW - Paleoclimatology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140612290&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104213
DO - 10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104213
M3 - Review article
SN - 0012-8252
VL - 234
SP - 1
EP - 16
JO - Earth-Science Reviews
JF - Earth-Science Reviews
M1 - 104213
ER -