Variability of the western Mediterranean Sea surface temperature during the last 25,000 years and its connection with the Northern Hemisphere climatic changes
| Type | Article | ||||||||
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| Date | 2001-02 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Cacho I1, 2, Grimalt Jo1, Canals M2, Sbaffi L3, Shackleton Nj3, Schonfeld J4, Zahn R4 | ||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : CSIC, ICER, Dept Environm Chem, Barcelona 08034, Catalonia, Spain. 2 : Univ Barcelona, GRC Marine Geosci, Dept Stratig & Paleontol, E-08071 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. 3 : Univ Cambridge, Godwin Lab, Cambridge CB2 3SA, England. 4 : GEOMAR, Res Ctr Marine Geosci, D-24248 Kiel, Germany. |
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| Source | Paleoceanography (0883-8305) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2001-02 , Vol. 16 , N. 1 , P. 40-52 | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.1029/2000PA000502 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 405 | ||||||||
| Abstract | Sea surface temperature (SST) profiles over the last 25 kyr derived from alkenone measurements are studied in four cores from a W-E latitudinal transect encompassing the Gulf of Cadiz (Atlantic Ocean), the Alboran Sea, and the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (western Mediterranean). The results document the sensitivity of the Mediterranean region to the short climatic changes of the North Atlantic Ocean, particularly those involving the latitudinal position of the polar front. The amplitude of the SST oscillations increases toward the Tyrrhenian Sea, indicating an amplification effect of the Atlantic signal by the climatic regime of the Mediterranean region. All studied cores show a shelter cooling phase (700 years) for the Younger Dryas (YD) than that observed in the North Atlantic region (1200 years). This time diachroneity is related to an intra-YD climatic change documented in the European continent. Minor oscillations in the southward displacement of the North Atlantic polar front may also have driven this early warming in the studied area. During the Holocene a regional diachroneity propagating west to east is observed for the SST maxima, 11.5-10.2 kyr B.P. in the Gulf of Cadiz, 10-9 kyr B.P. in the Alboran Sea, and 8.9-8.4 kyr B.P. in the Thyrrenian Sea. A general cooling trend from these SST maxima to present day is observed during this stage, which is marked by short cooling oscillations with a periodicity of 730+/-40 years and its harmonics. | ||||||||
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