Middle Eocene Seawater pH and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations
- 11 June 1999
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 284 (5421), 1824-1826
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.284.5421.1824
Abstract
The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere [measured as the partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2 )] affects the content of the surface ocean, which in turn affects seawater pH. The boron isotope composition (δ 11 B) of contemporaneous planktonic foraminifera that calcified their tests at different water depths can be used to reconstruct the pH-depth profile of ancient seawater. Construction of a pH profile for the middle Eocene tropical Pacific Ocean shows that atmospheric pCO 2 was probably similar to modern concentrations or slightly higher.This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
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