Present water mass calcium carbonate corrosiveness in the eastern South Atlantic inferred from ultrastructural breakdown of Globigerina bulloides in surface sediments

The Atlantic is regarded as a huge carbonate depocenter due to an on average deep calcite lysocline. However, calculations and models that attribute the calcite lysocline to the critical undersaturation depth (hydrographic or chemical lysocline) and not to the depth at which significant calcium carbonate dissolution is observed (sedimentary calcite lysocline) strongly overestimate the preservation potential of calcareous deep-sea sediments. Significant calcium carbonate dissolution is expected to begin firstly below 5000 in in the deep Guinea and Angola Basin and below 4400 in in the Cape Basin. Our study that is based on different calcium carbonate dissolution stages of the planktic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides clearly shows that it starts between 400 and 1600 in shallower depending on the different hydrographic settings of the South Atlantic Ocean. In particular, coastal areas are severely affected by increased supply of organic matter and the resultant production of metabolic CO2 which seems to create microenvironments favorable for dissolution of calcite well above the hydrographic lysocline. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.