REEs in Palaeoceanography 1 Rare Earth Elements in early-diagenetic foraminifer 2 ‘coatings’: pore-water controls and potential 3 palaeoceanographic applications 4 5 L.C. Skinner*1, A. Sadekov2, M. Brandon3, M.Greaves1, Y. Plancherel4, M. de la Fuente1, J. 6 Gottschalk5, S. Souanef-Ureta1, D.S. Sevilgen6, A.E. Scrivner1 7 8 *Corresponding author. Tel. +44 1223 333406 9 E-mail address:
[email protected] (L. Skinner) 10 11 1. Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, Department of Earth Sciences, University of 12 Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom. 13 2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Earth Sciences, University of Western 14 Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009. 15 3. GEOPS, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Rue du Belvédère, Bât. 504, 91405 Orsay, 16 France. 17 4. University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, South Parks Rd., Oxford OX1 3AN, United 18 Kingdom. 19 5. University of Bern, Institute of Geology & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Baltzerstr. 20 1+3 CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. 21 6. Centre Scientifique de Monaco 8 Quai Antoine 1er, MC98000, Monaco. 22 23 Abstract 24 Rare Earth Element (REE) distributions in the ocean bear the fingerprints of several key 25 environmental processes, including vertical particle/organic carbon fluxes, water 26 column/pore-water oxygenation and ocean transports. The use of ‘fossil’ REE analyses in 27 the service of palaeoceanography as redox, water transport or nutrient cycling ‘proxies’ has 28 long been a tantalizing possibility. Here we demonstrate the application of a novel laser- 29 ablation microanalysis approach for the rapid and accurate measurement of the REE 30 composition of early diagenetic ‘coatings’ on fossil foraminifera.