Pyrite sulfur isotopes reveal glacial−interglacial environmental changes

Significance Changes in sulfur isotope ratios ( 34 S/ 32 S) of marine sulfur phases are often attributed to global biogeochemical perturbations. Sediments collected on the shelf of the Gulf of Lion revealed remarkable sulfur isotopic fluctuations in sedimentary pyrite over the last 500,000 years, ranging between −44.0‰ and 32.3‰. We suggest this pattern is related to changes in the local environmental deposition, specifically, sedimentation modulating connectivity with the overlying water column and resulting microbial activity. Besides providing new understanding of an important and poorly constrained aspect of past glacial−interglacial transitions, our results are critically important because they question the degree to which changes in sulfur isotopes in pyrite reflect global biogeochemical processes versus local depositional conditions.