Publication Date:
2023-10-25
Description:
New information on palaeoenvironmental conditions over the past ~2700 years in the Central Mediterranean Sea have been acquired through the highresolution
study of calcareous nannofossils preserved in the sediment core SW104-ND14Q recovered in the Southern Adriatic Sea (SAS) at 1013-m
water depth. The surface water properties at this open SAS site are sensitive to atmospheric forcing (acting both at local and regional scale) and the
North Ionian Sea driven inflowing waters. Our data show a relationship between reworked coccolith abundances, flood frequency across the Southern
Alps and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) confirming their value as indicator of runoff/precipitation. Changes in the abundance of the opportunistic
(r-strategist) species Emiliania huxleyi and deep dweller taxa Florisphaera profunda were used to reconstruct the upper water column stratification and
associated changes in coccolithophorid productivity. The negative correlation between reworked coccoliths and the N-Ratio (r = −0.44; p = 6−7) suggest
that fresh water induced stratification is a controlling factor of the SAS coccolithophorid production. High coccolithophorid productivity levels occurred
during dry periods and/or time intervals of inflowing salty and nutrient-rich Levantine Intermediate Waters favouring convection while lower levels took
place during high freshwater discharge, mainly during the ‘Little Ice Age’ and two centennial scale intervals of weakest NAO around 200 BCE and 500 CE.
Description:
Project of Strategic Interest NextData PNR 2011–2013 (www. nextdataproject.it),
ERC Consolidator Grant (Project ID: 68323) ‘TIMED’ Testing
the role of Mediterranean thermohaline circulation as a sensor of
transient climate events and shaker of North Atlantic Circulation’
and MISTRALS/PaleoMex programme led by INSU/CNRS.
Description:
Published
Description:
53-64
Description:
4A. Oceanografia e clima
Description:
JCR Journal
Keywords:
central Mediterranean
;
coccolithophorid primary productivity
;
reworked coccoliths
;
last millennia
;
South Adriatic Sea
;
03.01. General
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
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