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Early and middle Holocene in the Aegean Sea: interplay between high and low latitude climate variability

Early and middle Holocene in the Aegean Sea: interplay between high and low latitude climate variability
Early and middle Holocene in the Aegean Sea: interplay between high and low latitude climate variability
Changes in the orbital parameters, solar output, and ocean circulation are widely considered as main drivers of the Holocene climate. Yet, the interaction between these forcings and the role that they play to produce the pattern of changes observed in different domains of the climate system remain debated. Here, we present new early to middle Holocene season-specific sea surface temperature (SST) and d18Oseawater results, based on organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst and planktonic foraminiferal data from two sediment cores located in the central (SL21) and south-eastern (LC21) Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean). Today, this region is affected by high to mid latitude climate in winter and tropical/ subtropical climate in summer. The reconstructed d18Oseawater from LC21 displays a marked (w1.3%) negative shift between 10.7 and 9.7 ka BP, which represents the regional expression of the orbitally driven African monsoon intensification and attendant freshwater flooding into the eastern Mediterra- nean. A virtually contemporaneous shift, of the same sign and magnitude, is apparent in the d18Ospeleothem record from Soreq Cave (Northern Israel), an important part of which may therefore reflect a change in the isotopic composition of the moisture source region (Aegean and Levantine Seas). Our SST reconstructions show that Aegean winter SSTs decreased in concert with intensifications of the Siberian High, as reflected in the GISP2 nss [Kþ] record. Specifically, three distinct sea surface cooling events at 10.5, 9.5–9.03 and 8.8–7.8 ka BP in the central Aegean Sea match increases in GISP2 nss [Kþ]. These events also coincide with dry interludes in Indian monsoon, hinting at large (hemispheric) scale tele- connections during the early Holocene on centennial timescales. A prominent short-lived (w150 years) cooling event in core SL21 – centred on 8.2 ka BP – is coeval to the ‘8.2 ka BP event’ in the Greenland d18Oice, which is commonly linked to a melt-water related perturbation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and associated ocean heat transport. By deciphering the phasing between a recently published record of reduced overflow from the Nordic Seas into the northern North Atlantic, the Greenland d18Oice ‘8.2 ka BP event’ anomaly, and the short-lived cooling in SL21, we demonstrate severe far-field impacts of this North Atlantic event in the Aegean Sea. The Aegean is isolated from the North Atlantic oceanic circulation, so that signal transmission must have been of an atmospheric nature.
0277-3791
3246-3262
Marino, Gianluca
40d6f3f2-0905-4c0f-8eb9-6d577b2833bb
Rohling, Eelco J.
a2a27ef2-fcce-4c71-907b-e692b5ecc685
Sangiorgi, Francesca
99a5c69f-f3b0-4c6a-899d-6a10e78a2392
Hayes, Angela
4ecf5a9d-1a1d-47f6-9822-f4159b06eb02
Casford, James L.
fa070b58-6778-4808-8acc-4c61c9209c18
Lotter, André F.
0b85abc7-81ac-4644-aa86-c0f43255ca88
Kucera, Michal
60f5b0d0-b552-45f9-96c0-f4a7004643ba
Brinkhuis, Henk
2897d110-84de-4cd1-8b90-97a0bc404354
Marino, Gianluca
40d6f3f2-0905-4c0f-8eb9-6d577b2833bb
Rohling, Eelco J.
a2a27ef2-fcce-4c71-907b-e692b5ecc685
Sangiorgi, Francesca
99a5c69f-f3b0-4c6a-899d-6a10e78a2392
Hayes, Angela
4ecf5a9d-1a1d-47f6-9822-f4159b06eb02
Casford, James L.
fa070b58-6778-4808-8acc-4c61c9209c18
Lotter, André F.
0b85abc7-81ac-4644-aa86-c0f43255ca88
Kucera, Michal
60f5b0d0-b552-45f9-96c0-f4a7004643ba
Brinkhuis, Henk
2897d110-84de-4cd1-8b90-97a0bc404354

Marino, Gianluca, Rohling, Eelco J., Sangiorgi, Francesca, Hayes, Angela, Casford, James L., Lotter, André F., Kucera, Michal and Brinkhuis, Henk (2009) Early and middle Holocene in the Aegean Sea: interplay between high and low latitude climate variability. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28 (27-28), 3246-3262. (doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.08.011).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Changes in the orbital parameters, solar output, and ocean circulation are widely considered as main drivers of the Holocene climate. Yet, the interaction between these forcings and the role that they play to produce the pattern of changes observed in different domains of the climate system remain debated. Here, we present new early to middle Holocene season-specific sea surface temperature (SST) and d18Oseawater results, based on organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst and planktonic foraminiferal data from two sediment cores located in the central (SL21) and south-eastern (LC21) Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean). Today, this region is affected by high to mid latitude climate in winter and tropical/ subtropical climate in summer. The reconstructed d18Oseawater from LC21 displays a marked (w1.3%) negative shift between 10.7 and 9.7 ka BP, which represents the regional expression of the orbitally driven African monsoon intensification and attendant freshwater flooding into the eastern Mediterra- nean. A virtually contemporaneous shift, of the same sign and magnitude, is apparent in the d18Ospeleothem record from Soreq Cave (Northern Israel), an important part of which may therefore reflect a change in the isotopic composition of the moisture source region (Aegean and Levantine Seas). Our SST reconstructions show that Aegean winter SSTs decreased in concert with intensifications of the Siberian High, as reflected in the GISP2 nss [Kþ] record. Specifically, three distinct sea surface cooling events at 10.5, 9.5–9.03 and 8.8–7.8 ka BP in the central Aegean Sea match increases in GISP2 nss [Kþ]. These events also coincide with dry interludes in Indian monsoon, hinting at large (hemispheric) scale tele- connections during the early Holocene on centennial timescales. A prominent short-lived (w150 years) cooling event in core SL21 – centred on 8.2 ka BP – is coeval to the ‘8.2 ka BP event’ in the Greenland d18Oice, which is commonly linked to a melt-water related perturbation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and associated ocean heat transport. By deciphering the phasing between a recently published record of reduced overflow from the Nordic Seas into the northern North Atlantic, the Greenland d18Oice ‘8.2 ka BP event’ anomaly, and the short-lived cooling in SL21, we demonstrate severe far-field impacts of this North Atlantic event in the Aegean Sea. The Aegean is isolated from the North Atlantic oceanic circulation, so that signal transmission must have been of an atmospheric nature.

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Published date: 2009

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 73087
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/73087
ISSN: 0277-3791
PURE UUID: 10bd4b3d-a510-45d1-9125-119a75de22eb
ORCID for Eelco J. Rohling: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5349-2158

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Date deposited: 01 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:37

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Contributors

Author: Gianluca Marino
Author: Francesca Sangiorgi
Author: Angela Hayes
Author: James L. Casford
Author: André F. Lotter
Author: Michal Kucera
Author: Henk Brinkhuis

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