Sub‐millennial climate shifts in the western Mediterranean during the last glacial period recorded in a speleothem from Mallorca, Spain

Abstract

2008. Sub-millennial climate shifts in the western Mediterranean during the last glacial period recorded in a speleothem from Mallorca, Spain.ABSTRACT: Very few high-resolution and directly dated terrestrial archives of the last glacial period exist for the western Mediterranean region, yet this is a key locality for recording sub-millennial North Atlantic and Mediterranean climate change. Here, we present evidence of effective precipitation changes based on growth history and d 13 C of calcite in a Mallorcan stalagmite that grew between 112 and 48 ka. Effective precipitation in Mallorca appears to have been sensitive to proximal sea surface temperature variations and at certain times, ca. 76 ka for example, changed rapidly from moist to arid conditions in only a few centuries. A sea-level highstand during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5a interrupted growth. Regrowth started promptly after this, but effective precipitation decreased markedly for much of the later part of MIS 5a, and also for shorter periods correlative with Heinrich events H8 (ca. 90 ka) and H6 (ca. 65 ka), with growth ceasing during H5 (ca. 48 ka). Arid episodes in Mallorca appear to be expressions of extremely cold periods recorded further north in Europe and occur contemporaneously with rapid decreases in Greenland temperature.

Western Mediterranean Climate Response to Dansgaard/Oeschger Events: New Insights From Speleothem Records

“…During glacials, cool SSTs in the North Atlantic decreased the energy budget over the ocean and the moisture uptake in winter. This resulted in drier conditions in the western Mediterranean (Daniau et al, 2007;Dumitru et al, 2018;Hodge, Richards, Smart, Ginés, & Mattey, 2008;Moreno et al, 2005).…”

“…Concomitantly, the AMOC has a large impact on sea surface temperatures (SST) in the North Atlantic (Pailler & Bard, 2002) as well as the western Mediterranean Sea (Bagniewski et al, 2017;Martrat et al, 2004). Changes in SST and the position and topography of the ice sheets, in turn, have an impact on the atmospheric circulation (Cacho et al, 2000;Merz et al, 2015;Moreno et al, 2005;Naughton et al, 2009) by influencing the pathways of North Atlantic storm tracks and the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ; Naughton et al, 2009;Stríkis et al, 2018) and, as a consequence, on effective precipitation in the Mediterranean (Hodge, Richards, Smart, Andreo, et al, 2008;Hodge, Richards, Smart, Ginés, & Mattey, 2008). A decrease or even shutdown of the AMOC is coupled to lower SSTs in the North Atlantic and a southward shifted oceanic thermal front, which results in a more southerly route of the Atlantic jet stream and its associated westerlies (Naughton et al, 2009).…”

Oxygen isotopes as tracers of Mediterranean climate variability: An introduction

“…Carbon isotope composition has also emerged has an interesting proxy for effective precipitation, as the contribution of isotopically 13 C-depleted CO 2 from soil decreases when effective precipitation declines (e.g. Genty et al, 2003;Hodge et al, 2008) or, in some cases, simply changes the residence time of water in the soil (e.g. Bar-Matthews et al, 2000;Frisia et al, 2006).…”

Combining allostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic perspectives to compile subregional records of fluvial responsiveness: The case of the sustainably entrenching Palancia River watershed (Mediterranean coast, NE Spain)

“…rough terminus post quem for upper PA aggradation during MIS 3. This corresponds to a late Pleistocene period for which records of Mediterranean paleoclimates document frequent shifts between interstadial and stadial climates that brought about contrastive, rapidly alternating warmer and moist or arid and cold conditions (e.g., Allen and Huntley, 2000;Burjachs and Allué, 2003;Hodge et al, 2008). Therefore, at least in the case of the local situation in the Río Seco tributary it can be concluded that a relationship exists between effective downcutting, intense geomorphic sediment transfer, and a Pleistocene period with frequent shifts between stadial and interstadial climates.…”