Seemingly divergent sea surface temperature proxy records in the central Mediterranean during the last deglacial

Marie-Alexandrine Sicre (1, 2) , Giuseppe Siani (3) , Dominique Genty (1, 4) , Nejib Kallel (5) , L. Essallami (1)

1 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
2 PALEOCEAN - Paléocéanographie
3 GEOPS - Géosciences Paris Sud
4 GLACCIOS - Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables
5 Unité GEOGLOB

Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were reconstructed over the last 25 000 yr using alkenone paleothermometry and planktonic foraminifera assemblages from two cores of the central Mediterranean Sea: the MD04-2797 core (Siculo–Tunisian channel) and the MD90-917 core (South Adriatic Sea). Comparison of the centennial scale structure of the two temperature signals during the last deglaciation period reveals significant differences in timing and amplitude. We suggest that seasonal changes likely account for seemingly proxy record divergences during abrupt transitions from glacial to interglacial climates and for the apparent short duration of the Younger Dryas (YD) depicted by the alkenone time series, a feature that has already been stressed in earlier studies on the Mediterranean deglaciation.

Mots clés: Panoply

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

Marie-Alexandrine Sicre, Giuseppe Siani, Dominique Genty, Nejib Kallel, L. Essallami. Seemingly divergent sea surface temperature proxy records in the central Mediterranean during the last deglacial. Climate of the Past, 2013, 9 (3), pp.1375-1383. ⟨10.5194/cp-9-1375-2013⟩. ⟨hal-00839618⟩