Surface and Mediterranean Outflow Water Dynamics in the Gulf of Cadiz during the Pleistocene

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Publications

Early Pleistocene calcareous nannofossil assemblages from the Gulf of Cadiz reveal glacial-interglacial and millennial-scale variability

Publication . Trotta, Samanta; Marino, Maria; H L Voelker, Antje; Rodrigues, Teresa; Maiorano, Patrizia; Flores, José-Abel; Girone, Angela; Addante, Marina; Balestra, Barbara

Coccolithophore high resolution (300 years) quantitative analyses have been carried out on Early Pleistocene sediment samples from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1387 retrieved in the Gulf of Cadiz. The studied interval is well constrained by the delta 18O chronological frame and covers marine isotope stage (MIS) 48 to MIS 45, from 1465.9 ka to 1389.9 ka. The aim is to investigate paleoenvironmental changes during a poorly known interval of the "41 ky world" and understand how climate dynamics controlled coccolithophore abundance and variation at orbital up to millennial scale. Assemblage composition variation and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) indicate that temperature and nutrient availability are the main factors influencing coccolithophores. Precession forcing combined with hydrological and atmospheric dynamics affect changes in coccolithophore assemblage composition and abundance highlighting glacial-interglacial cycles and a millennial scale variability, which is more evident during glacials than during interglacials. Interglacial MIS 47 onset is more abrupt than MIS 45 inception in relation to a more prominent insolation maximum, which favors the sharp increase and highest abundance of warm water taxa in the early MIS 47. Short-term abundance peaks of C. pelagicus spp. pelagicus during glacials document polar-subpolar melting water influx into the Gulf of Cadiz and southward migration of the subpolar front during episodes of high volume ice-sheet in the north hemisphere and reduced Atlantic Meridional Overturning circulation. In late MIS 48 the lowest coccolithophore productivity, induced by colder and stratified surface waters, a terminal stadial has been inferred. Enhanced short-term glacial productivity is favored by higher mixing and nutrient content in surface water due to the strengthened westerly winds during symbolscript phases. This promotes arid condition and upwelling along the studied site. The interglacial short-term coccolithophore productivity increases are associated with insolation maxima and enhanced nutrients of land origin during more humid periods led by -NAO-like phases, which induce the southward position of the westerlies and higher precipitation in the Mediterranean region and North Africa, in agreement with the contemporary sapropel occurrences in Mediterranean Sea. Our data-set suggests a connection between climate dynamics in the Gulf of Cadiz and east of Gibraltar Strait during the Early Pleistocene as well as a relationship with the north hemisphere ice-sheet dynamics.

2022-12Journal article

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Data report: diatom and silicoflagellate records of marine isotope Stages 25-27 at IODP Site U1387, Faro Drift

Publication . Ventura, C.; Abrantes, Fatima; Loureiro, I.; Voelker, Antje; Stow, Dorrik A. V.; Hernandez-Molina, F. Javier; Alvarez Zarikian, Carlos A.; Expedition 339 Scientists

During Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 339, the shipboard micropaleontological studies of Site U1387 core catcher samples revealed the preservation of diatoms and radiolarians in specific depths from early Pleistocene age (900–1000 ka). To evaluate the ecological significance of those diatoms, we analyzed 98 samples from the intervals of 244 to 274 m along the corrected splice, corresponding to marine isotope Stage (MIS) 25 to MIS 29, for the abundance of diatoms and silicoflagellates. In 6 samples, the composition of the diatom assemblage was determined as well. Although most samples were barren of siliceous microfossils, the downcore record revealed two intervals, 249–252 corrected meters composite depth (cmcd) and 263–265 cmcd, where diatoms and silicoflagellates reach their maximum values. These maxima occurred from the MIS 26/25 transition to interglacial MIS 25, and again during early MIS 27. The diatom assemblage includes 27 identified taxa with Chaetoceros (Hyalochaete) resting spores being dominant and Thalassionema nitzschioides and Paralia sulcata significant. The Chaetoceros spores clearly indicate strong influence of seasonal upwelling and associated high primary productivity. Special to the diatom record is, however, the occurrence of the large-diameter (>125 µm) centric diatoms Coscinodiscus asteromphalus, Coscinodiscus apiculatus, and Coscinodiscus cf. gigas that imply incursions of low-nutrient, open-ocean water into the southern Portuguese coast during MIS 25.

2017Book part

Open Access

Persistent influence of obliquity on ice age terminations since the Middle Pleistocene transition

Publication . Bajo, Petra; Drysdale, Russell N.; Woodhead, Jon D.; Hellstrom, John C.; Hodell, David; Ferretti, Patrizia; Voelker, Antje; Zanchetta, Giovanni; Rodrigues, Teresa; Wolff, Eric; Tyler, Jonathan; Frisia, Silvia; Spötl, Christoph; Fallick, Anthony E.

Radiometric dating of glacial terminations over the past 640,000 years suggests pacing by Earth’s climatic precession, with each glacial-interglacial period spanning four or five cycles of ~20,000 years. However, the lack of firm age estimates for older Pleistocene terminations confounds attempts to test the persistence of precession forcing. We combine an Italian speleothem record anchored by a uranium-lead chronology with North Atlantic ocean data to show that the first two deglaciations of the so-called 100,000-year world are separated by two obliquity cycles, with each termination starting at the same high phase of obliquity, but at opposing phases of precession. An assessment of 11 radiometrically dated terminations spanning the past million years suggests that obliquity exerted a persistent influence on not only their initiation but also their duration.

2020Journal article

Open Access

Quaternary chronostratigraphic framework and sedimentary processes for the Gulf of Cadiz and Portuguese Contourite Depositional Systems derived from Natural Gamma Ray records

Publication . Lofi, Johanna; Luise Voelker, Antje Helga; Ducassou, Emmanuelle; Hernandez-Molina, Francisco J.; Sierro, Francisco J.; Bahr, Andre; Galvani, Aurelie; Lourens, Lucas J.; Pardo-Iguzquiza, Eulogio; Pezard, Philippe; Rodriguez-Tovar, Francisco Javier; Williams, Trevor

The Contourite Depositional Systems (CDS) in the Gulf of Cadiz and on the West Iberian margin preserve a unique archive of Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) variability over the past 53 Ma. These CDS have been recently drilled in several places during the IODP Expedition 339. These drill sites now offer a new window to the internal Pliocene and Quaternary architecture of the CDS. In this study, we use downhole and core Gamma Ray (GR) data acquired from 5 sites drilled in the CDS along the middle slope and 1 site drilled in the deeper setting of the lower slope, out of the MOW path. The GR data primarily tracks the clay content in the sediment and is the expression of sediment supply and, for sites drilled in the CDS, of the bottom current processes. Both appear astronomically controlled as shown by spectral analysis performed on the GR data. Results also reveal that the GR log patterns correlate well across the sites over the last 1.4 My. Several GR horizons corresponding to drops in GR values were identified, most of which fit with coarse-grained deposits observed in cores and interpreted as contourite beds. The GR horizons are interpreted as isochronous horizons, providing a regional scale chronostratigraphic framework for the CDS depositional records with an accuracy of similar to 20 ky. We further assess the spatial and temporal variability of the CDS hiatuses at the regional scale. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

2016-07Journal article

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Data report: early Pleistocene calcareous nannofossils, IODP Expedition 339, Site U1387

Publication . Balestra, B.; Voelker, Antje; Flores, J.A.; Stow, D. A. V.; Hernandez-Molina, F. Javier; Alvarez Zarikian, Carlos A.; Expedition 339 Scientists

We present a revision and refinement of semiquantitative analyses of calcareous nannofossil assemblages in early Pleistocene samples from Holes U1387A and U1387C recovered toward the eastern end of the Faro Drift (36°48.3210N, 7°43.1321W) during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 339, Mediterranean Outflow (November 2011–January 2012). The record is characterized by intervals very rich in calcareous nannofossils that are in general moderately to well preserved. On the other hand, the record contains an interval directly above the youngest dolomite layer in Section 339-U1387C-19R-4 (~0.7 m) where no coccoliths were preserved. The new stratigraphic constraints of events such as the lowest occurrence (LO) of large Gephyrocapsa, the highest occurrence (HO) of Calcidiscus macintyrei (1.66 Ma), the LO of medium-sized Gephyrocapsa group, and the HO of Discoaster brouweri (1.95 Ma) allow better interpretation of the isotope stratigraphy applied to this interval.

2019Conference object

Open Access