A high resolution record of the last deglaciation in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea: environmental and climatic evolution

Abstract

A multidisciplinary study was carried out on core C106 collected in the Salerno Gulf (southern Tyrrhenian Sea). Two tephra layers recovered in the core, δ 18O record of Globigerinoides ruber and Globigerina bulloides and seven 14C calibrated ages provided the stratigraphic framework. The core sediments cover the last 28 kyr BP. Seismo-stratigraphic analysis of a high resolution acoustic profile, integrated by the dated core samples, allowed us to reconstruct the architecture and age of sedimentary bodies on the continental shelf. An integrated study based on different taxonomic groups (nannofossils, pteropods, foraminifera, and palynomorphs) provided palaeoclimatic trends, in agreement with changes in the isotopic composition of oxygen. The upper part of the Last Glacial period, the deglaciation phase and the Holocene were identified. Correlation between marine and continental records of palaeoenvironmental changes confirms a similar reconstruction of the last deglaciation as in the central and southern Mediterranean Sea. The Late Pleistocene–Holocene boundary was recognised at about 11.7 kyr BP. Between about 9.5 and 6 kyr BP and at 3.3 kyr BP some warmer episodes were recorded. The measured lower isotopic values, together with some features of the fossil assemblages recorded from 9.5 to 6 kyr BP, may be related to the oceanographic setting that led to the deposition of Sapropel S1 in the Mediterranean basin.