Multiproxy record of suborbital-scale climate changes in the Algero-Balearic Basin during late MIS 20 - Termination IX

High-resolution quantitative analyses have been carried out in samples from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 975 in the Algero-Balearic basin through late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS 20)-Termination IX (800–784 ka). The multi-proxy study combines data of planktonic δ18O, δ13C, calcareous plankton (coccolithophores, foraminifera), palynomorphs, alkenone-based sea surface temperature (SST), % alkenone tetraunsatured (% C37:4), and terrigenous biomarkers (C23–C31 n-alkanes, C22–C30 n-alkanols) with the aim to reconstruct climate-induced paleoenvironmental changes at orbital-submillennial scale, in a crucial time interval of the Early-Midde Pleistocene transition. The surface water δ18Osw has been reconstructed from δ18OG.bulloides and alkenone-based SST as a proxy for salinity changes. The late MIS 20 has been subdivided in several phases based on evidence of (i) meltwater events of polar origin or from surrounding mountain glaciers, (ii) changes in the production rate of Western Mediterranean Deep Water (WMDW) and in deep water ventilation, (iii) variation in terrestrial input and river discharge, and iv) variations in the strength of the north westerlies, and polar front shift. Following a glacial stadial (lasting ca 3 kyr) marked by the strongest WMDW production, coeval with a boreal summer insolation minimum and a marked low sea level, the latest MIS 20 is characterized by a terminal stadial event (lasting ca 3.5 kyr), which is traced by the occurrence of cold-low salinity water, pointing to meltwater advection at the site location. Short-term warm and cool events occurred through Termination IX during sea level rise and insolation increase, preceding the onset of full MIS 19c, characterized by an organic rich layer (ORL) associated with insolation cycle 74. The succession of these climate and oceanographic events has been compared to evidences from other Mediterranean sites, highlighting similar basin-wide patterns, which recall the climate evolution of Termination I. The comparison of our results with the climate proxies from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1385 located west of Iberian margin made it possible to point at the connection between Mediterranean oceanographic and atmospheric dynamics and the northern hemisphere ice-sheet instability, providing insight on the relationship with the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and thermal front migration.