| Summary: | Curs 2016-2017 This final degree project is part of the practice's realized at research institute ICTA-UAB (Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals), which consisted in the analysis of an oceanic sedimentological register. Core 1 was obtained in May 2013, adjacent to Barcelona’s coast, latitude 41.1121 N and longitude 2.382 E, at 1156 m water depth at the end of the MedSeA Cruise, in order to collect further data for the project. Once collected, the core was transported to ICTA where during 2016 the upper half part of Core 1 was analyzed by Griselda Anglada as a part of her Master’s Thesis. Following the same procedures, planktic foraminifera of the bottom part of core 1 were extracted from the remaining lower samples and separated by fractions, whereby the most common foraminiferal species in the size fraction between 250 to 315 µm were picked from each half centimetre of the sediment core, determining its absolute and relative abundance. Then specimens of the five most abundant species were selected, weighed and image analyzed to determinate its Size-Normalized weight (SNW). The main aim is to reconstruct the dynamics of planktonic calcifiers in the Catalan Sea (Western Mediterranean) during the last ˜400 years, through the characterization of the species absolute abundance, relative abundance and SNW. This study will contribute to the understanding of the natural variability and the recent impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2, determining ocean warming and acidification effects in the region. For this reason the results obtained by Griselda were coupled with those of the bottom part in order to get core 1 completed and later analyze the obtained results. The sediments have been dated with the aim of relating the obtained results with the following reconstructed physical parameters: atmospheric CO2 concentration, Sea Surface Temperature (SST), North Atlantic Oscillation and Total Solar Irradiation. Through statistical correlation by Pearson’s coefficient, I determined the possible effects on the dynamics ...
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