Unraveling the Onset and Spread of Cretaceous Anoxia (A07)

• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2008 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 27542298

The proposed study aims at investigating how enhanced CO2 emissions affect the ventilation of the ocean and the biogeochemical turnover of oxygen, nutrients, and carbon. We focus on the Cretaceous period (144 ¿ 65 Ma) when major ocean basins were affected by severe anoxia. By using a suite of time series data from the Tarfaya Basin (Morocco) in combination with numerical models (box modelling, earth system modelling) we will investigate how massive volcanic CO2 emissions at the onset of the Cretaceous Anoxic Event OAE2 triggered large-scale oxygen loss in major ocean basins. The proposed work will close important gaps of previous efforts to disentangle and synthesize proxy records and modelling efforts.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 754: Climate - Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean
• Applicant Institution: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
• Co-Applicant Institution: GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Kuhnt; Professor Dr.-Ing. Klaus Wallmann