Chronological control and centennial-scale climatic subdivisions of the Last Glacial Termination in the western Mediterranean region

Camuera, J., Jiménez-Moreno, G., Ramos-Román, M. J., García-Alix, A., Jiménez-Espejo, F. J., Toney, J. L. and Anderson, R. S. (2021) Chronological control and centennial-scale climatic subdivisions of the Last Glacial Termination in the western Mediterranean region. Quaternary Science Reviews, 255, 106814. (doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106814)

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Abstract

The Last Glacial Termination is marked by changing environmental conditions affected by abrupt and rapid climate oscillations, such as Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1), which is characterized by extremely low sea surface temperatures (SST) and significant changes in northern hemisphere terrestrial landscape (e.g., vegetation) and human dispersion. Previous studies show that overall cold/dry conditions occurred during HS1, but the lack of high-resolution records precludes whether climate was stable or instead characterized by instability. A high-resolution paleoclimatic record from the Padul wetland (southern Iberian Peninsula), supported by a high-resolution chronology and contrasted with other records from southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, shows 1) that the age boundaries of HS1 in this area occurred at ∼18.0 kyr BP (median age = 17,970 cal yr BP; mean age = 18,030 ± 330 cal yr BP) and ∼15.2 kyr BP (median age = 15,210 cal yr BP; mean age = 15,200 ± 420 cal yr BP) and 2) that climate during HS1 was non-stationary and centennial-scale variability in moisture is superimposed on this overall cold climatic period. In this study, we improve the pollen sampling resolution with respect to previous studies on the same Padul-15-05 sedimentary core and suggest a novel subdivision of HS1 in 7 sub-phases, including: i) 3 sub-phases (a.1-a.3) during an arid early phase (HS1a; ∼18.4–17.2 kyr BP), ii) a relatively humid middle phase (HS1b; ∼17.2–16.9 kyr BP), and iii) 3 sub-phases (c.1-c.3) during an arid late phase (HS1c; ∼16.9–15.7 kyr BP). This climatic subdivision is regionally supported by SST oscillations from the Mediterranean Sea, suggesting a strong land-sea coupling. A cyclostratigraphic analysis of pollen data between 20 and 11 kyr BP indicates that the climate variability and the proposed subdivisions characterized by ∼2000 and ∼800-yr periodicities could be related to solar forcing controlling climate in this area.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This research is supported by the projects CGL 2013-47038-R and CGL-2017-85415-R, B-RNM-144-UGR18, PhD funding BES- 2014-069117 (J.C.) and Ramon y Cajal fellowship RYC-2015-18966 (A.G.-A.) provided by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government. Additional funding was provided by the project number 316702 from the Academy of Finland for a postdoctoral research contract (J.C.) and the research group RNM0190 and the project P11-RNM-7332 with a postdoctoral fellowship (M.J.R.-R.) from the Junta de Andalucía. M.J.R.-R. acknowledges the postdoctoral funding provided by the European Commission/H2020 (ERC-2017-ADG, project number 788616).
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., Jiménez-Espejo, F. J., Toney, J. L., and Anderson, R. S.
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:03 February 2021
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2021 The Authors
First Published:First published in Quaternary Science Reviews 255:106814
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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