Size control on benthic foraminifera oxygen and carbon isotopes: examples from Southwestern Atlantic

• Grant number: 06/06036-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2007
• End date: January 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Chemical Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Karen Badaraco Costa
• Grantee: Karen Badaraco Costa
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project has as objective to investigate the isotopic (carbon and oxygen) composition of benthic foraminiferal shells from different size intervals during interglacial (Holocene) and glacial periods. The identification of such periods (high resolution stratigraphy) will be established on the basis of the carbonate content from sediments. One expects that the execution of the work contributes with results that can be used for future research in carbon and oxygen isotopes of benthic foraminifers in the western South Atlantic, because is intended to identify precisely which sizes of benthic foraminifers test that register the isotopic characteristics of the surrounding seawater. Such information has vital importance for future research in ocean paleochemistry and paleocirculation, since such studies are based, mainly, in the isotopic variations of carbon and oxygen of foraminifers between glacial and interglacial periods. (AU)