sea surface temperature and salinity reconstruction from geochemical tracers of a massive coral in the persian gulf

the δ18o, δ13c, and strontium/calcium (sr/ca)-record was measured from a 7-year old platygyrasinensis coral located offshore larak island in the persian gulf at a resolution of 22 samples/year. an increasedsampling resolution of 55 samples/year over two annual cycles was also compared with the 22 sampleresolution to evaluate the effectiveness of the sampling procedure. the resulting data exhibited identicalresults between the two methods. by means of previously reported equations, sr/ca-derived sea surfacetemperatures (sst) ranged between 17 to 30 °c, with an average of 24.7 °c. the inter-annual variability in theplatygyra sinensis indicated a significant correlation with coads data. in addition, the relation between theδ18o in platygyra sinensis coral and the sr/ca-estimated sst data was assessed. subtracting the sr/ca-basedsst values from the δ18o of the coral, the δ18o of water was calculated. these data were then used to constructranges of sea surface salinity (sss) in the region.