Marino, Gianluca; Rohling, Eelco J.; Rijpstra, W. Irene C.; Sangiorgi, Francesca; Schouten, Stefan; Sinninghe Damste, Jaap S. (2007): Aegean Sea as driver of hydrographic and ecological changes in the eastern Mediterranean. Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States, Geology (Boulder), 35 (8), 675-678, georefid:2007-084821
Abstract:
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+ or -20 yr, promoting euxinic conditions hostile to aerobic life that expanded toward the photic layer within 650+ or -250 yr. Similar conditions extended throughout the eastern Mediterranean 300+ or -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.
Coverage:
West: 24.4205 East: 26.3500 North: 35.4000 South: 33.4249
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Supplemental Information:
With GSA Data Repository Item 2007175
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