Project Details
Projekt
Linking marine and terrestrial ecosystem responses to climate variability since the Last Interglacial in the Eastern Mediterranean (Exp. 381, Gulf of Corinth)
Applicant
Professor Dr. Patrick Grunert, since 8/2023
Subject Area
Geology
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 507048985
The IODP Expedition 381: Corinth Active Rift Development successfully recovered the longest and highest resolution sequence located in a young (< 5 Ma) extensional basin at the point of connection to the global ocean. The study area is located in SE Europe a renowned Mediterranean plant refugial area and is highly sensitive to abrupt climate oscillations originating from both higher (e.g North Atlantic) and lower latitudes (African monsoon). As the basin subsided, its depositional environment has been affected by fluctuating global sea levels and a unique range of paleoenvironmental gradients occurred. Marine ecosystem turnovers occurred during transitions between phases when the Gulf of Corinth was connected with the global ocean circulation (interglacials) and isolated phases (glacials). Preliminary analyses suggest that palynomorphs (pollen and dinocysts) are the only biotic proxy encountered continuously through the transitions between marine and brackish (isolated) intervals. This project focuses on the Last Interglacial, the Glacial and Holocene intervals and aims to (i) investigate changes in vegetation (diversity and abundance) at a centennial scale during abrupt climate oscillations, (ii) reconstruct surface processes and hydrological changes that controlled sediment influx and affected the depositional environment of the Gulf, (iii) reconstruct sea surface salinity, temperature and nutrient availability and assess their impact on aquatic ecosystem productivity focusing on transitional phases, (iv) determine lead-lag relationships between the response of the terrestrial and marine ecosystems to identified drivers controlling the depositional environment. The findings of this project based on palynology, lipid biomarkers and sedimentology will be subsequently integrated with the outcome of the bundle project (foraminifera, geochemistry, sedimentology) to address two of the major objectives laid out in the IODP Exp. 381.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
International Connection
Greece, United Kingdom
Cooperation Partners
Dr. Alexandra Gogou; Professorin Dr. Katerina Kouli; Dr. Fabienne Marret-Davies
Ehemaliger Antragsteller
Dr. Konstantinos Panagiotopoulos, until 8/2023
