Reading daily ocean temperatures from red algae
Understanding how marine ecosystems respond to a warming ocean requires detailed records of past temperatures. An international research team led by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz has found a new way to reconstruct daily seawater temperatures over a four-month period.
Researchers have developed a novel method to reconstruct daily seawater temperatures using rhodoliths, which are nodule-like structures formed by red algae in oceans worldwide. This breakthrough allows scientists to track temperature fluctuations and warming trends with high resolution. By combining 3D X-ray imaging, geochemical analyses, and a special algorithm, the team successfully reconstructed daily seawater temperatures from a single rhodolith collected in the central Red Sea over a four-month period.
The key challenge was the complex three-dimensional branching structure and asynchronous growth of the rhodoliths, which the researchers addressed by staining the algae with a dye that specifically accumulates in calcium carbonate. This dye served as a time marker, allowing the researchers to measure branch growth and create a continuous timeline.
The study demonstrates the potential of this method to provide high-resolution climate data across larger regions and longer time periods, contributing to a better understanding of paleoclimatic development and the impacts of global warming on marine ecosystems.
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