Cold-Water Coral Mound Archive Provides Unique Insights Into Intermediate Water Mass Dynamics in the Alboran Sea During the Last Deglaciation ...

• Main Authors: Fentimen, Robin, Feenstra, Eline, Rüggeberg, Andres, Vennemann, Torsten, Hajdas, Irka, Adatte, Thierry, Van Rooij, David, Foubert, Anneleen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2020
• Subjects: Benthic foraminifera; Stable isotopes; Grain size; Mediterranean; Paleoenvironment; Bolling-Allerod; Greenland Interstadial 1; Greenland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000424338; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/424338

The Alboran Sea is widely recognized to host numerous cold-water coral ecosystems, including the East Melilla Coral Province. Yet, their development through time and response to climatic variability has still to be fully understood. Based on a combined investigation of benthic foraminiferal assemblages, foraminiferal stable isotope compositions, grain size analysis, sediment geochemistry, and macrofaunal quantification, this study identifies key events and processes having governed coldwater coral development at the East Melilla Coral Province between Greenland Stadial 2.1 and the Early Holocene. The transition from Greenland Stadial 2.1 to Greenland Interstadial 1 is associated to a decline of bryozoan communities and their replacement by cold-water corals, together with changes in benthic foraminiferal assemblages and a decrease in the sediment mean grain size. These results suggest that a rapid decrease in bottom currents and the establishment of dysoxic and mesotrophic conditions at the seafloor, ... : Frontiers in Marine Science, 7 ...