0000000000125326
AUTHOR
Serena Ferraro
The Uniqueness of Planktonic Ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea: The Response to Orbital- and Suborbital-Climatic Forcing over the Last 130,000 Years
AbstractThe Mediterranean Sea is an ideal location to test the response of organisms to hydrological transformations driven by climate change. Here we review studies carried out on planktonic foraminifera and coccolithophores during the late Quaternary and attempt the comparison of data scattered in time and space. We highlight the prompt response of surface water ecosystems to both orbital- and suborbital-climatic variations.A markedly different spatial response was observed in calcareous plankton assemblages, possibly due to the influence of the North Atlantic climatic system in the western, central and northern areas and of the monsoon system in the easternmost and southern sites. Orbita…
Sea Surface Temperatures and Paleoenvironmental Variability in the Central Mediterranean During Historical Times Reconstructed Using Planktonic Foraminifera
The ongoing anthropogenic‐induced warming assessment requires a robust background from regional sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions. Planktonic foraminifera have yielded valuable insights into late Quaternary SST dynamics, but the techniques to estimate SST from fossil assemblages have only rarely been used in very recent sedimentary records (the last 2,000 years). Here we use two transfer function methods, modern analog technique and artificial neural networks, to reconstruct SST variability in two cores from the Central Mediterranean Sea that span the last five centuries. Both cores show similar and considerable changes in the planktonic foraminifera assemblages. However, the in…
Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of sediment drift accumulation in the Malta Graben (central Mediterranean Sea)
The Malta Graben is a deep tectonic depression in the Sicily Channel, bounded by NW-SE normal faults and filled by thick Pliocene-Quaternary deposits. A previous analysis of a giant piston core (LC09) from the Malta Graben had revealed a wide range of sedimentary features (carbonate turbidites, bioturbated mud and scours), although the chronostratigraphic constraint of the stacking pattern has remained elusive. After establishing a reliable chronological framework based on seven radiocarbon dates for a shorter core from the Malta Graben (ANSIC03-735), a down-core analysis of planktonic foraminifer and coccolith abundance, stable isotopes and sediment grain size was carried out. Since the la…
Ten Years of Paleoceanographic Studies at ODP Site 963 (Central Mediterranean Sea)
The geographical location, the shape and the circulation pattern makes the Mediterranean Sea an ideal laboratory to study the interplay between different climatic systems, abrupt climate changes and the response of marine ecosystems. The Ocean Drilling Program Site 963 was drilled in the Northwestern part of the Sicily Channel, the sill that divides the western from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Numerous papers have been published on Site 963 sediments in the last decade, investigating Mediterranean paleoceanographic themes. Here we offer a synthetic framework of these investigations carried out by sub-centennial resolution. We present the whole sequence of suborbital climatic oscillations…
Size variations in the genus Gephyrocapsa during the Early Plaeistocene in the eastern Mediterranean
The genus Gephyrocapsa, belonging to coccolithophores, hasoften been used in biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic studies ofthe late Cenozoic. This taxon exhibits a gradual increase in sizeduring the Early Pleistocene which has been ascribed to evolutiveand/or environmental processes and has been used for biostratigraphicpurposes.Here we show both biometric and relative abundance data ofspecimens of this genus between about 2.0 and 0.9 Ma, from sedimentsof the Ionian Sea (eastern Mediterranean). Measurements onthe long axis of placoliths highlight a gradual size increase betweenthe upper part of MNN 19a and the top of MNN 19d biozones. Onthe basis of the comparison with paleoenvironmental…