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Limestone-marl alternations are commonly used for high-resolution cyclostratigraphic studies and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, but diagenetic studies indicate that not all limestone-marl alternations reflect genuine differences in the initial sediment composition driven by environmental changes. Differences in the ratios of diagenetically inert trace elements between limestones and marls indicate changes affecting the terrigenous fraction of the precursor sediment. Contrarily, limestone-marl alternations without these differences can be the product of: (i) variations in CaCO 3 input (aragonite, calcite); (ii) distortion of the latter by diagenetic CaCO 3 redistribution; or (iii) diagenetic CaCO 3 redistribution in a homogeneous precursor sediment. The aim of this study is to provide a method to differentiate these cases and to identify variations in the proportion of calcite and aragonite in the precursor sediment composition. The model of differential diagenesis assumes that the concentration of diagenetically inert elements is inversely proportional to the amount of redistributed CaCO 3 . Consequently, the difference between ratios of diagenetically inert elements from two adjacent beds is a measure for CaCO 3 redistribution. This is quantifiable by the vector length between ratios from two adjacent beds. The approach is illustrated here by evaluation of a case study from the Silurian of Gotland, Sweden. Trace elements were compared according to their solubility during diagenesis. All elements bound to clay minerals or calcite show similar patterns of vector length, while vector length of elements which fit into the aragonite lattice, and are diagenetically mobile, differ. The vector length approach provides a tool to test the diagenetic origin of limestonemarl alternations, to identify initial variations in CaCO 3 input and to test a limestone-marl alternation's suitability for cyclostratigraphic analyses.

Variations in depositional rates affect the temporal depositional resolutions of proxies used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions; for example, condensation can make reconstructed environmental changes appear very abrupt. This is commonly addressed by transforming proxy data using age models, but this approach is limited to situations where numerical ages are available or can be reliably inferred by correlation. Here we propose a new solution, in which relative age models are constructed based on proxies for depositional rates. As a case study, we use the onset of the late Silurian Lau Carbon Isotope Excursion (LCIE) in Gotland, Sweden. The studied succession is a gradual record of shallowing upward in a tropical, neritic carbonate platform. As proxies for depositional rates we tested thorium concentration, carbonate content, and the concentration of pelagic palynomorphs. These three proxies were used to create relative age models using the previously published DAIME model. We applied these models to transform the δ13Ccarb values as well as concentrations of selected redox‐sensitive elements. The three relative age models yielded qualitatively similar results. In our case study, variations in depositional rates resulted in peaks of redox proxies appearing up to 76% higher when taken at face value, compared to when accounting for these rates. In the most extreme cases, our corrections resulted in a reversal in the stratigraphic trend of elemental concentrations. This approach can be applied and developed across depositional setting and types of paleoenvironmental proxies. It provides a flexible tool for developing quantitative models to improve our understanding of the stratigraphic record.