Calcareous plankton and the mid-Brunhes climate variability in the Alboran Sea (ODP Site 977)

• Published in: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
• Main Authors: M. Marino, Girone A., P. Maiorano, R. Di Renzo, A. Piscitelli, J-A Flores
• Other Authors: Marino, M., Girone, A., Maiorano, P., Di Renzo, R., Piscitelli, A., J-A, Flores
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Coccolithophores Planktonic foraminifera MIS 9-13 Paleoceanography Paleoclimate Western Mediterranean; Neogloboquadrina pachyderma; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11586/228656; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.07.023

Quantitative calcareous plankton analyses have been performed at the Ocean Drilling Program Site 977 in the Alboran Sea through the mid-Brunhes interval (300–540 ka). The results evidence orbital-suborbital and millennial scale climate variability which primary reflects temperature change. The patterns of increase/decrease of coccolithophore and planktonic foraminifera warm water taxa reproduce the stage and substage climate variability in the planktonic δ18O in good agreement with other planktonic isotope records from Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Variable conditions, characterized by alternating cool nutrient-rich or warm and stable sea-surface waters, occurred during interglacial Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 13 in response to high amplitude oscillations of insolation during obliquity maximum and to North Africa monsoon strength, influencing distribution of taxa. MIS 13a resulted warmer than MIS 13c based on the higher abundances of warm water taxa; they increase just after insolation maxima, suggesting a primary response of calcareous plankton to precessional orbital control. Following short-term warm (MIS 11e) and more humid (MIS 11d) phases, a climate optimum lasting about 16 kyr is recognized during MIS 11c, when major tropical-subtropical water arrival into the Alboran Sea occurred as evidenced by the presence of Trilobatus sacculifer. MIS 11c records unstable climate condition that persisted up to the late MIS 11, indicating multiple pulses of southward migrations of subpolar front following the full interglacial MIS 11c. Warm and oligotrophic conditions occurred during MIS 9 as during MIS 11, especially in MIS 9e, although without a climate optimum. Reduced abundance of warm water taxa and decrease of Globorotalia inflata highlight colder surface water conditions and decreased Atlantic-Mediterranean water exchange during glacials, especially during the prominent sea-level low-stand of MIS 12. Short-term prominent peaks of the polar-subpolar Neogloboquadrina pachyderma and Coccolithus pelagicus ...