Shelf Ecosystems along the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain Prior to and During the Paleocene‐Eocene Thermal Maximum: Insights into the Stratigraphic Architecture

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is the most pronounced global warming event of the early Paleogene related to atmospheric CO2 increases. It is characterized by negative delta O-18 and delta C-13 excursions recorded in sedimentary archives and a transient disruption of the marine biosphere. Sites from the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain show an additional small, but distinct delta C-13 excursion below the onset of the PETM, coined the "pre-onset excursion" (POE), mimicking the PETM-forced environmental perturbations. This study focuses on the South Dover Bridge core in Maryland, where the Paleocene-Eocene transition is stratigraphically constrained by calcareous nannoplankton and stable isotope data, and in which the POE is well-expressed. The site was situated in a middle neritic marine shelf setting near a major outflow of the paleo-Potomac River system. We generated high-resolution benthic foraminiferal assemblage, stable isotope, trace-metal, grain-size and clay mineralogy data. The resulting stratigraphic subdivision of this Paleocene-Eocene transition is placed within a depth transect across the paleoshelf, highlighting that the PETM sequence is relatively expanded. The geochemical records provide detailed insights into the paleoenvironment, developing from a well-oxygenated water column in latest Paleocene to a PETM-ecosystem under severe biotic stress-conditions, with shifts in food supply and temperature, and under dysoxic bottom waters in a more river-dominated setting. Environmental changes started in the latest Paleocene and culminated atthe onset of the PETM, hinting to an intensifying trigger rather than to an instantaneous event at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary toppling the global system.