Links between marine and atmospheric processes oscillating on a millennial time-scale. A multi-proxy study of the last 50,000 yr from the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

The large dataset obtained from the extensive study of IMAGES core MD95-2043 recovered from the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean) shows the periodicities and phase relationships of oceanographic and atmospheric processes on a millennial time-scale. The 1470-yr cycle is the most significant, with the exception of the records reflecting climatic or environmental changes on land which show statistically significant 3300 and 8000 frequency bands. The investigation of these core records on a millennial scale resolution allows us to establish the evolution of oceanographic and atmospheric mechanisms that influenced the Western Mediterranean region in the course of the Dansgaard/Oeschger cycles. Accordingly, possible land–sea interactions can be identified and situated in the context of the temporal succession of the different climatic processes. For instance, Saharan dust supply from Northern Africa appears to lead high-latitude climate changes, suggesting that low-latitude feedback processes were involved in forcing the millennial climatic variability in the westernmost Mediterranean.