Seasonality in sea surface temperatures from δ18O in Cladocora caespitosa: Modern Adriatic to late Pleistocene, Gulf of Corinth
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Royle, S
Andrews, JE
Kružić, P
Marca, AD
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
High-resolution stable isotope analysis of coral skeletons is an established method to help reconstruct seawater growth temperatures for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Here we investigated the temperate, colonial, Mediterranean scleractinian coral Cladocora caespitosa. We first studied modern Adriatic corals from Mljet (Croatia) where growth temperatures were known. A clear sinusoidal cyclicity is present in the δ18O of the modern coral skeletons with average cycle minima ∼−3.3‰ and average maxima ∼−1.6‰. Cyclicity approximately matches the number of seasonal growth band pairs in each sample, implying a genetic link between δ18O cyclicity and factors that determine seasonal growth band development, here mainly water temperature. A derived and calibrated species-specific δ18O–temperature relationship was then used to reconstruct growth temperatures from fossil C. caespitosa. This was applied to well-preserved material collected from late Pleistocene deposits (MIS 1, 5 and 7) around the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. Clear seasonal δ18O signals are seen in all the fossil samples. MIS 5e was the warmest period studied with a lower than modern seasonal temperature range. The Early to mid-Holocene probably experienced the lowest temperatures while conditions in MIS 7a/c were probably the wettest with most freshwater input into the Gulf.
Date Issued
2015-06-23
Date Acceptance
2015-03-25
Citation
Journal of Quaternary Science, 2015, 30 (4), pp.298-311
ISSN
0267-8179
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
298
End Page
311
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Quaternary Science
Volume
30
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: ROYLE, S. H., ANDREWS, J. E., MARCA-BELL, A., TURNER, J. and KRUŽIĆ, P. (2015), Seasonality in sea surface temperatures from δ18O in Cladocora caespitosa: modern Adriatic to late Pleistocene, Gulf of Corinth. J. Quaternary Sci., 30: 298–311, which has been published in final form at https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2768. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Subjects
Paleontology
0403 Geology
0406 Physical Geography And Environmental Geoscience
2101 Archaeology
Publication Status
Published