Millennial-Scale Climate Variability for the Last Glacial Cycle along the Iberian Margin based on Dinoflagellate Cysts

Abstract:

The Shackleton Site (IODP Expedition 339 Site U1385), located off the West-Portuguese Margin, preserves a continuous high-fidelity record of millennial-scale climate variability for the last several glacial cycles (~1.4 Myr) that can be correlated precisely to patterns observed in polar ice cores. In addition, rapid delivery of terrestrial material to the deep-sea environment allows the correlation of these marine records to European terrestrial climate records. This unique marine-ice-terrestrial linkage makes the Shackleton Site the ideal reference section for studying Quaternary abrupt climate change. The main objective of studying site U1385 is to establish a marine reference section of Pleistocene climate change. We generated millennial-scale dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) assemblage records from the Shackleton Site (IODP Expedition 339) to reconstruct upwelling, sea surface temperature (SST) and productivity across the last two glacial-interglacial cycles. We quantify the validity of dinocyst-based paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on multivariate statistics on dinocyst assemblages and multi-proxy data from regional core-tops and the last glacial cycle. This allows us to conclude that the strength of the West Iberian Margin upwelling system changed from relatively intense upwelling during the last glacial to upwelling relaxation during the Holocene as a result of reduced (strength of the) Portuguese trade winds. Secondly, SST, productivity/upwelling, strength of Portuguese trade winds and climate on the Iberian Peninsula co-vary on stadial-interstadial timescales and correspond to Greenland stadial-interstadial variability (δ¹⁸O). Finally, we will present a long-term paleoceanographic perspective down to ~120 ka.