Submerged landscapes of the eastern Adriatic – from the river across the lake all the way to the sea

Abstract

<p>Submerged paleolandscapes constitute records of long-term paleoenvironmental change, climate, and sea level. To date, there is a very limited knowledge concerning the submerged karst paleolandscapes of the eastern Adriatic coast and the Late Quaternary sedimentary sequences along the eastern part of the Mid Adriatic Deep (MAD). We aim to improve this through the project “Sediments between source and sink during a Late Quaternary eustatic cycle: The Krka and the Mid Adriatic Deep System” (QMAD). The QMAD project supports multidisciplinary research by application of the high-resolution geophysical surveys (multibeam, side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler), in combination with sedimentological, petrophysical, geochemical (trace elements and isotopes), micropaleontological (ostracod and foraminifera), mineralogical and aDNA techniques. This suite of analyses will enable tracking of the paleoenvironmental evolution from fluvial/lake to deeper marine environments, on a short transect less than 100 km in length (Lake Prokljan in the Krka River estuary to the eastern part of MAD). The submerged Late Pleistocene and Holocene environments that occur include isolation basins, lagoons, deltas, estuaries, submarine channels and shelf. The continuous marine sedimentation during the Late Quaternary is investigated in the MAD. In the case of the central part of the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea (Krka catchment - MAD) these different environments compose an integrated system; thus, they can’t be analysed separately. The main goals of this project fill the existing gaps in understanding of the climatic and environmental changes, including sea-level related landscape changes and their interplay during the Late Quaternary eustatic cycle. More data on the Pleistocene environments, especially from the region of Krka estuary that was land during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), will complete the picture of the evolution and environmental adaptation of Paleolithic humans and their relationship with vegetation changes. Attention is also paid to potential anthropogenic environments, recent sedimentation rates, landscape features and artefacts. All results of the multi-proxy approach applied in this project will eventually be merged into a comprehensive Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstruction of the eastern Adriatic landscapes that contribute to the understanding of these changes in the Mediterranean region.</p>