Aegean Sea as driver of hydrographic and ecological changes in the eastern Mediterranean

Marino, G., Rohling, E.J., Rijpstra, W.I.C., Sangiorgi, F., Schouten, S. and Sinninghe-Damste, J.S. (2007) Aegean Sea as driver of hydrographic and ecological changes in the eastern Mediterranean. Geology, 35 (8), 675-678. (doi:10.1130/G23831A.1).

Abstract

The eastern Mediterranean is undergoing a long-term increase in net evaporation, which may have preconditioned the profound changes that occurred in its deep-sea ventilation over the past two decades. We test the sensitivity of Aegean convective deep-water formation to forcing in the opposite sense, based on a last interglacial episode of enhanced freshwater injection into the eastern Mediterranean. We find that Aegean subsurface ventilation collapsed completely within 40 ± 20 yr, promoting euxinic conditions hostile to aerobic life that expanded toward the photic layer within 650 ± 250 yr. Similar conditions extended throughout the eastern Mediterranean 300 ± 120 yr later. These findings emphasize the exceptional sensitivity of Aegean deep-water formation to climate forcing, driving large-scale hydrographic adjustments throughout the eastern Mediterranean and beyond.

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Contributors

Author: E.J. Rohling

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