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Geology; August, 2007; v. 35; no. 8; p. 675-678; DOI: 10.1130/G23831A.1
© 2007 Geological Society of America
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Aegean Sea as driver of hydrographic and ecological changes in the eastern Mediterranean

Gianluca Marino*,1, Eelco J. Rohling2, W. Irene C. Rijpstra3, Francesca Sangiorgi4, Stefan Schouten5 and Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté5

1 Institute for Coastal Marine Environment, National Research Council, Porto di Napoli, Calata Porta di Massa, 80133 Naples, Italy
2 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, Hampshire SO14 3ZH, UK
3 Department of Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Burg, Texel, Netherlands
4 Palaeoecology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands, and Department of Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Burg, Texel, Netherlands
5 Department of Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Burg, Texel, Netherlands

The eastern Mediterranean is undergoing a long-term increase in net evaporation, which may have preconditioned the profound changes that occurred in its deep-sea ventilation over the past two decades. We test the sensitivity of Aegean convective deep-water formation to forcing in the opposite sense, based on a last interglacial episode of enhanced freshwater injection into the eastern Mediterranean. We find that Aegean subsurface ventilation collapsed completely within 40 ± 20 yr, promoting euxinic conditions hostile to aerobic life that expanded toward the photic layer within 650 ± 250 yr. Similar conditions extended throughout the eastern Mediterranean 300 ± 120 yr later. These findings emphasize the exceptional sensitivity of Aegean deep-water formation to climate forcing, driving large-scale hydrographic adjustments throughout the eastern Mediterranean and beyond.

Key Words: Mediterranean Sea • thermohaline circulation • sapropels • stable isotopes • biomarkers






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