Orbital-scale environmental and climatic changes recorded in a new ∼200,000-year-long multiproxy sedimentary record from Padul, southern Iberian Peninsula

Camuera, J. et al. (2018) Orbital-scale environmental and climatic changes recorded in a new ∼200,000-year-long multiproxy sedimentary record from Padul, southern Iberian Peninsula. Quaternary Science Reviews, 198, pp. 91-114. (doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.08.014)

Abstract

Padul is one of the few wetland sites in southern Europe and the Mediterranean region that exhibits an unusually large temporal span (>100 kyr) and continuous Quaternary sedimentary record. Previous core-based studies from Padul yielded paleoecological datasets (i.e., pollen and organic geochemistry), but with a poor age control that resulted in rather arbitrary climate inferences. Therefore, precise age control and a multidisciplinary approach is necessary to understand long-term regional environmental and climate change and the associated local response of the Padul wetland environment. Here we present a new long sediment record (Padul-15-05) from this wetland in the southern Iberian Peninsula with the aim of improving the age control of the sedimentary sequence and carrying out up-to-date high-resolution multiproxy analyses. In this study the age control is based on 61 AMS radiocarbon dates for the last ca. 50 kyr BP and on the extent of amino acid racemization (AAR) in mollusc shells extending back ∼118 kyr BP. No numerical ages are available for the bottom part of the core but the sediment accumulation rates (SAR) and the cyclostratigraphic analysis of the multiproxy data suggest that the core preserves a continuous record of the last ∼197 kyr (from late MIS 7 to present) with millennial-scale time resolution. Sedimentological (lithology, magnetic susceptibility, XRD, color), geochemical (XRF, TOC, C/N, % carbonate content) and paleontological (pollen, charophytes, gastropods) data show co-varying cyclical paleoenvironmental changes linked to orbital-scale climatic variability. Silicon, magnetic susceptibility (MS) and total organic carbon (TOC) data show periodicities between ∼26.2–19.6 kyr linked to insolation, which is strongly dominated by precession cycles at this latitude. High values of Si and MS data have been related to high siliciclastic/detrital input from Sierra Nevada range during minima in insolation due to enhanced soil weathering/erosion during regional aridity and lower forest cover recorded by the arboreal pollen, which could also be favored by a minor biogenic productivity. In addition, warm climate conditions during maxima in insolation mostly resulted in negative precipitation/evapotranspiration balance and low lake levels, while cold glacial and stadial periods were mainly characterized by positive precipitation/evapotranspiration balance, and therefore, high lake levels. The improved chronology of the Padul sedimentary sequence along with a multiproxy study permitted us to better relate environmental and vegetation changes to climatic events and to demonstrate how both local (i.e., lake level, sedimentation) and regional (i.e., vegetation) environments responded to orbital-scale climate changes.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the projects CGL2013-47038-R and CGL-2017-85415-R funded by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government and the research group RNM0190 (Junta de Andalucía). Jon Camuera acknowledges the PhD funding (BES-2014-069117) provided by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government under the project CGL2013-47038-R. María J. Ramos-Román also acknowledges the PhD and post-PhD fellowship from the Conserjería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo of the Junta de Andalucía (P11-RNM-7332). Antonio García-Alix was also supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship of the 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration of the European Commission (NAOSIPUK. Grant Number: PIEF-GA-2012-623027) and by a Ramón y Cajal FellowshipRYC-2015-18966 of the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Toney, Professor Jaime
• Authors: Camuera, J., Jiménez-Moreno, G., Ramos-Román, M. J., García-Alix, A., Toney, J. L., Anderson, R. S., Jiménez-Espejo, F., Kaufman, D., Bright, J., Webster, C., Yanes, Y., Carrión, J. S., Ohkouchi, N., Suga, H., Yamame, M., Yokoyama, Y., and Martínez-Ruiz, F.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0277-3791
• ISSN (Online): 1873-457X
• Published Online: 06 September 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd.
• First Published: First published in Quaternary Science Reviews 198: 91-114
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy