Organic Matter in Late Pleistocene-Holocene Sediments from the Peruvian Margin

Approximately 20,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum, savanna vegetation expanded at the expense of forest ecosystems in the Amazon and Indonesian Basins as the result of enhanced aridity of tropical and equatorial areas. Under such conditions, continental margin sediments tend to preserve a higher proportion of terrigenous organic matter than during interglacial times and may serve as an important archive for paleoclimate and paleo-ecosystem studies.

Using sediment cores obtained during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 201, a group of researchers from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University-Galveston, and the University of Colorado generated a high-resolution geochemical record of organic matter components preserved in Late Pleistocene and Holocene sediments from the Peruvian shelf (ODP Hole 1229E).

This work is critical to sustain the efforts made in understanding microbial degradation dynamics in relation to changing oxidative conditions and sources of reduced carbon to continental margin sediments during glacial-interglacial fluctuations.

An ODP publication is available at this link. For more information, contact Thomas Naehr, Patrick Louchouarn, James Silliman, or Stephane Houel.