Paleosalinity

Paleosalinity (or palaeosalinity) is the salinity of the global ocean or of an ocean basin at a point in geological history.

From Bjerrum plots, it is found that a decrease in the salinity of an aqueous fluid will act to increase the value of the carbon dioxide-carbonate system equilibrium constants, (pK*). This means that the relative proportion of carbonate with respect to carbon dioxide is higher in more saline fluids, e.g. seawater, than in fresher waters. Of crucial importance for paleoclimatology is the observation that an increase in salinity will thus reduce the solubility of carbon dioxide in the oceans. Since there is thought to have been a 120 m depression in sea level at the last glacial maximum due to the extensive formation of ice sheets (which are solely freshwater), this represents a significant fractionation towards saltier seas during glacial periods. Correspondingly, this will cause a net outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because of its reduced solubility, acting to increase atmospheric carbon dioxide by 6.5‰. This is thought to partly offset the net decrease of 80-100‰ observed during glacial periods.

In addition, it is thought that extensive salinity stratification can lead to a reduction in the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) through the slowing of thermohaline circulation. Increased stratification means that there is effectively a barrier to subduction of parcels of water; isopycnals effectively do not outcrop at the surface and are parallel to the surface. The ocean, in this case, can be described as "less ventilated", and this has been implicated in the slowing down of the MOC.

There may exist proxies for salinity, but to date the main way that salinity has been measured has been by directly measuring chlorinity in pore fluids. Adkins et al. (2002) used pore fluid chlorinity in ODP cores, with the paleo-depth estimated from nearby coral horizons. Chlorinity was measured rather than pure salinity because the major ions in seawater are not constant with depth in the sediment column; for example, sulfate reduction and cation-clay interactions can change overall salinity, whereas chlorinity is not heavily affected.

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