Holocene climate variability in the western Mediterranean region from a deepwater sediment record

• Published in: Paleoceanography
• Main Authors: Frigola, Jaime, Moreno Caballud, Ana, Cacho, Isabel, Canals, Miquel, Sierro, Francisco Javier, Flores, José Abel, Grimalt, Joan O., Hodell, David A., Curtis, Jason H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2007
• Subjects: Paleoceanography: Abrupt/rapid climate change; Marine Geology and Geophysics; Marine sediments: Processes and transport; Paleoceanography: Insolation forcing; Thermohaline; Insolation forcing; Geochemistry: Sedimentary geochemistry; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/10569; https://doi.org/10.1029/2006PA001307

16 pages, 2 tables, 6 figures. The detailed analysis of the International Marine Past Global Changes Study core MD99-2343 recovered from a sediment drift at 2391 m water depth north of the island of Minorca illustrates the effects of climate variability on thermohaline circulation in the western Mediterranean during the last 12 kyr. Geochemical ratios associated with terrigenous input resulted in the identification of four phases representing different climatic and deepwater overturning conditions in the Western Mediterranean Basin during the Holocene. Superimposed on the general trend, eight centennial- to millennial-scale abrupt events appear consistently in both grain size and geochemical records, which supports the occurrence of episodes of deepwater overturning reinforcement in the Western Mediterranean Basin. The observed periodicity for these abrupt events is in agreement with the previously defined Holocene cooling events of the North Atlantic region, thus supporting a strong Atlantic Mediterranean climatic link at high-frequency time intervais during the last 12 kyr. The rapid response of the Mediterranean thermohaline circulation to climate change in the North Atlantic stresses the importance of atmospheric teleconnections in transferring c1imate variability from high latitudes to midlatitudes. Funding by the European Commission Fifth and Sixth Framework Programmes to projects ADIOS (EVK3-2000- 00035), PROMESS 1 (EVR1-CT-2002-40024), EUROSTRATAFORM (EVK3-2002-00079), and HERMES (GOCE-CT-2005-5 11234-1) supported the research effort behind this paper. The Spanish-funded BTE2002-04670 and REN2003-08642-C02-02 projects are equally acknowledged. We are especially grateful to the Marion Dufresne and the IMAGES programirie that enabled the collection of cores MD99-2343 and MD95-2043. GRC Geociències Marines is recognized within the Generalitat de Catalunya excellence research groups program (reference 2005SGR 00152). We thank M. Guart (Departament d’Estratigrafia, Paleontologia i Geociències Marines, ...