| Abstract: | Global controls on the oceanographic influences on the nature of carbonate factories are broadly understood. The details of the influences of changes in temperature and nutrients across individual carbonate shelves are less well constrained, however. This study explores spatial and temporal variations in chemical oceanography along and across the Yucatan Shelf, a modern carbonate ramp, and how these factors relate to variable bottom character, sediment and sediment geochemistry. In‐situ sensors and remote‐sensing data indicate the sporadic presence of cool, upwelled water with low dissolved oxygen and elevated Chlorophyll‐a. This current‐driven, westward flow of upwelled water is most evident in a zone just offshore of the northern peninsular shoreline, but its influence wanes ca 75 km offshore and as the shore turns southward. The impacts of this water mass include a transitional photozoan–heterozoan assemblage with biosiliceous components, relict grains and common thin Holocene sediment accumulations nearshore; further offshore are coralgal reefs and expansive sand plains. Geochemical proxies of bulk sediment, including high δ18O and elevated HREE/LREE (heavy rare‐earth element/light rare‐earth element) ratios near, and downcurrent of, the upwelling source, are interpreted to represent the signal of nearshore, westward movement of the cool and nutrient‐rich, upwelled water. Collectively, these data emphasize how local processes such as upwelling and longshore transport can variably influence carbonate sediment accumulations and their geochemical signatures, both along and across individual shelves. These data and insights provide an analogue for the influences of spatial variability of water masses in the geological record, and for accurate interpretation of stratigraphic changes of sedimentary and geochemical proxy data in carbonate archives. |
