Salinity is a vital parameter for understanding watermass properties. In modern aquatic environments, salinity is influenced by complex interactions involving evaporation, precipitation, freshwater runoff, location, and connection with the open ocean. Epeiric seas hold significant geological records, but modern analogues are scarce and exhibit varying salinity levels, depending on their connection to the open ocean. Assessing past salinity conditions is challenging due to limited paleogeographical data, relying mainly on geochemical analysis in sedimentary rocks, particularly mudstones.

Salinity proxies have been crucial in oceanography and climate change research, with new elemental proxies showing promise but requiring further testing and calibration. Presently, our collaborative efforts focus on applying these proxies in the Late Devonian North American Seaway and calibrating them in modern and near-modern environments.

Funding: 

Calibrating elemental paleosalinity proxies in Holocene sediments. Postdoctoral Research Grant International Association of Sedimentologists (2020). 

Peer-reviewed publications:

Remírez, M., Gilleaudeau, G., McBride, R., Pederson, C., Miller, C., Wallace, D., Guerra, L., Piovano, E.,  Virtasalo, J., Culver-Miller, E., Bondzie-Selby, I., Wang, C.,  Algeo, T., 2025. Calibrating elemental salinity proxies in Holocene sedimentary environments. Chemical Geology, in press.

Remírez, M., Schwarz, E., Gilleaudeau, G., Veiga, G., Algeo, T., 2025. Seas to lakes and vice-versa: A test of facies versus elemental salinity proxies. Chemical Geology, in press.

Remírez, M., Algeo, T., Shen, J., Liu, J., Gilleaudeau, G., Zhou, L., 2024. Low-salinity conditions in “marine” Late Triassic-Early Jurassic Neuquén Basin of Argentina: Challenges in paleosalinity interpretation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 646, 112216.

Gilleaudeau, G., Wei, W., Remírez, M., Song, Y., Lyons, T., Bates, S., Anbar, A., Algeo, T., 2023. Geochemical and hydrographic evolution of the Late Devonian Appalachian Seaway: Linking sedimentation, redox, and salinity across time and space. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24 (8), e2023GC010973.

Remírez, M., Algeo, T., 2020. Paleosalinity determination in ancient epicontinental seas: A case study of the T-OAE in the Cleveland Basin (UK). Earth-Science Reviews, 201, 103072.

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