0000000000292491
AUTHOR
Sergio Silenzi
A Review of 2000 Years of Paleoclimatic Evidence in the Mediterranean
[EN] The integration of climate information from instrumental data and documentary and natural archives; evidence of past human activity derived from historical, paleoecological, and archaeological records; and new climate modeling techniques promises major breakthroughs for our understanding of climate sensitivity, ecological processes, environmental response, and human impact. In this chapter, we review the availability and potential of instrumental data, less well-known written records, and terrestrial and marine natural proxy archives for climate in the Mediterranean region over the last 2000 years. We highlight the need to integrate these different proxy archives and the importance for…
Vermetid reefs in the Mediterranean Sea as archives of sea-level and surface temperature changes
Vermetid reefs are among the most important bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea, with a distribution restricted to the warmest part of the basin. Their structure, and vertical and geographical distribution make them good biological indicators of changes in sea level and sea-surface temperature over the last two millennia.
Assessing vermetid reefs as indicators of past sea levels in the Mediterranean
Abstract The endemic Mediterranean reef building vermetid gastropods Dendropoma petraeum complex (Dendropoma spp) and Vermetus triquetrus develop bio-constructions (rims) on rocky shorelines at about Mean Sea Level (MSL) and are therefore commonly used as relative sea-level (RSL) markers. In this study, we use elevations and age data of vermetid reefs to (1) re-assess the vertical uncertainties of these biological RSL indicators, and (2) evaluate the vertical growth rates along a Mediterranean east-west transect, in attempt to explain the differences found in both growth rates and uncertainties. In Israel, Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and laser measurements relative to the …
A new marker for sea surface temperature trend during the last centuries in temperate areas: Vermetid reef
The presence of Vermetid reefs in temperate waters, their diffusion in the Mediterranean Sea, and the possibility of performing 14 C ages allowed the use of Vermetids as an indicator of sea level changes. We present new data on sea climate trend fluctuations that could be interpreted as Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variations, recorded on Vermetid (Dendropoma petraeum) reefs, by means of isotopic analysis. The isotopic records show positive values of the d 18 O relative to present-day values in the period between 1600 and 1850 AD; this deviation occurs in association with the climatic cooling event known as Little Ice Age (LIA). Subsequently, we can observe the warming trend that character…