Shallow water carbonate platforms (Late Aptian-Early Albian, Southern Apennines) in the context of supraregional to global changes: re-appraisal of palaeoecological events as reflectors of carbonate factory response

This paper discusses the palaeoenvironmental significance of the Orbitolina Level, the microbial carbonates and the Salpingoporella dinarica-rich deposits encased in the Aptian/Albian shallow water carbonate platform strata of Monte Tobenna and Monte Faito (Southern Italy). These facies show a peculiar field appearance due to their color and/or fossil content. In the shallow water carbonate strata, the Late Aptian Orbitolina Level was formed during a period of decreasing accommodation space. Microbial carbonates occur in different levels in the composite section. They reach their maximum thickness around the sequence boundaries just above the Orbitolina Level and close to the Aptian-Albian transition, and were not deposited during maximum flooding. S. dinarica-rich deposits occur in the lower part of the Monte Tobenna-Monte Faito composite section, in both restricted and more open lagoonal sediments. S. dinarica has its maximum abundance below the Orbitolina Level and disappears 11 m above this layer. On the basis of delta C-13 and delta O-18 values recorded at Tobenna-Faito, the succession has been correlated to global sea-level changes and to the main volcanic and climatic events during the Aptian. Deterioration of the inner lagoon environmental conditions was related to high trophic levels triggered by volcano-tectonic activity. Microbial carbonates were deposited especially in periods of third-order sea level lowering. In such a scenario, periods of increased precipitation during the Gargasian induced the mobilization of clay during flooding of the exposed platform due to high-frequency sea-level changes, with consequent terrigenous input to the lagoon. This and the high nutrient levels made the conditions unsuitable for the principle carbonate producers, and an opportunistic biota rich in orbitolinids (Mesorbitolina texana and M. parva) populated the platform. In the more open marine domain, the increased nutrient input enhanced the production of organic matter and locally led to the formation of black shales (e.g. the Niveau Fallot in the Vocontian Basin). It is argued that the concomitant low Mg/Ca molar ratio and high concentration of calcium in seawater could have favoured the development of the low-Mg calcite skeleton of the S. dinarica green algae. During third-order sea-level rise, no or minor microbial carbonates formed in the shallowlagoonal settings and S. dinarica disappeared. Carbonate neritic ecosystems were not influenced by the environmental changes inferred to have been induced by the mid-Cretaceous volcanism. The Orbitolina Level, the microbial carbonates and the Salpingoporella dinarica-rich deposits in the studied Aptian/Albian shallow water carbonate strata are interpreted to be the response to environmental and oceanographic changes in shallow-water and deeper-marine ecosystems.