- 1Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (IDAEA), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
- 2MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
- 3Instituto Geológico y Minero de España CN, (CSIC-IGME), Madrid, Spain
- 4Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Algés, Portugal
- 5Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve (CCMAR), Faro, Portugal
- 6Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Barcelona, Spain
- 7Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
The Mediterranean Sea is expected to be one of the regions most severely impacted by current and future climate change. In fact, it is already experiencing more frequent and severe hydro-extremes (floods and droughts), which are to be exacerbated in the near future, together with thermal-extremes (heat and cold waves) as yet to be evaluated in seasonality and predictability.
While past centennial-scale climate fluctuations in this region have already been investigated, however, little is known about higher frequency variability, i.e. variability at human timescales. This study aims to investigate the hydroclimate dynamics and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variability over the past ~2,000 years at unprecedented temporal resolution, by using high-resolution biomarker analyses.
Therefore, we integrated Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) and conventional alkenone analysis to achieve sub-annual to decadal resolution in SST reconstructions from marine sediments collected in the Western Mediterranean and the Tagus areas from the Iberian margin. MSI is further combined with elemental proxies derived from μXRF mapping, including indicators of continental input and marine productivity.
Preliminary results reveal significant centennial-scale SST fluctuations and hydroclimate variability over the past ~2,000 years, including climatic transitions such as the Late Little Ice Age (LaLIA; 6th–7th centuries), the Little Ice Age (LIA; ca. 13th–19th centuries) and the Post-Industrial period (19th century onwards). We will present an overview of how these transitions impacted interannual to decadal climate variability. Such knowledge will advance our understanding of climate dynamics and their regional consequences, which is essential for addressing the associated societal-economic challenges.
Acknowledgements: The project that gave rise to these results received the support of a fellowship from the ”la Caixa” Foundation (ID LCF/BQ/DI24/12070003).
How to cite: Kapiri, M.-S., Wörmer, L., Lebreiro, S., Liu, W., Platikanov, S., Rodrigues, T., Salgueiro, E., Tobias, A., Taubner, H., Wendt, J., Obreht, I., Ziveri, P., and Martrat, B.: Interannual to decadal climate variability during the past 2,000 years in the Western Mediterranean using Mass Spectrometry Imaging, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18824, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18824, 2025.
