Paleohydrology reconstruction and Holocene climate variability in the South Adriatic Sea

Abstract

Abstract. Holocene paleohydrology reconstruction was derived combining planktic and benthic stable oxygen and carbon isotopes, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and oxygen isotope composition of seawater (δ18Ow) from a high sedimentation core collected in the south Adriatic sea (SAS). Chronology of core is based on 10 AMS 14C measures on planktic foraminifera and tephra markers. Results reveal two contrasted paleohydrological periods that reflect (i) a marked lowering of δ 18Ow/salinity during the early to middle Holocene (11.5 ka to 6.3 ka), including the two-steps sapropel S1 deposition, followed during the middle to upper Holocene by (ii) a prevailed period of increased salinity and enhanced arid conditions in the south Adriatic basin. Superimposed on these trends, short-term centennial-scale hydrological events punctuated the Holocene period in the SAS. During the Early to Middle Holocene, a short-term SST cooling together with a prominent δ 18Ow/salinity lowering, more pronounced than during the sapropel S1 phase, delineates the sapropel S1 interruption. This short interval, coeval to the 8.2 ka event, is also distinguished by a resumption of deep-water convection in the SAS as indicated by stable isotope reconstruction on benthic forminifera. After 6 ka, centennial-scale δ18Ow and G. bulloides δ13C lowering, mostly centered between 3 to 0.6 ka, reflect short term hydrological changes related to a more intensive Po river runoff. These short-term events, even of lesser amplitude compared to the early to middle Holocene period, may have induced a lowering of sea surface density and consequently reduced and/or inhibited the formation of deep bottom waters in the SAS. Comparison of the emerging centennial to millennial-scale hydrological record with previous climatic records from the central Mediterranean area and north of the Alps revealed possible synchronicities (within the radiocarbon-dating uncertainty) between phases of lower salinity in SAS and periods of wetter climatic conditions around the north-central Adriatic Sea. Finally, wavelet analyses provide new clues about the potential origin of climate variability in the SAS confirming the evidence for a mid-Holocene transition in the Central Mediterranean climate and the dominance of a ~ 1700 yr periodicity after 6 ka that reflects a plausible connection with the North Atlantic climate system.