BANBU

Holocene climate change in the Mediterranean Basin across an East to West gradient: the sedimentary records of lakes BANyoles and BUtrint

The Mediterranean region is characterized by a permanent hydrological deficit and an intensive water management during its long history of human occupation, revealing the central role of hydrological resources in the region. The particular location of the Mediterranean Basin, between the subatlantic and subtropical climate regimes and its present-day predominantly semi-arid conditions makes this area very sensitive to climate fluctuations. Thus, a responsible and sustainable use of the natural resources in a scenario of changing climate and increasing human pressure over the ecosystems is one of the main challenges for societies in the 21st century.

To know the regional variability and how climate and ecosystems – including human societies – interacted in the past during hydrological crises is essential before we can develop sound adaptation and mitigation policies to global changes. Thus, reconstructing the timing, relative intensity and the spatial synchrony of the Holocene abrupt climate fluctuations in continental areas of the Mediterranean Basin is crucial to characterize long-term local climate variability and its environmental and social impacts.

This proposal aims to reconstruct climate evolution of the Mediterranean basin during the last millennia across a W to E gradient based on the multidisciplinary analysis of two exceptional lacustrine deposits: Banyoles (Spain) and Butrint (Albania). To achieve this goal, two main techniques will be used: the high-resolution seismic stratigraphy of both lake basins and the multidisciplinary analysis of sediment cores (sedimentology and geochemistry).

The quality of these sedimentary sequences, characterized by the presence of finely laminated sediments, able to generate high-resolution, annually resolved records and the innovative, multidisciplinary approach to be applied will allow obtaining a complete palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the most important area of southern Europe in terms of climate change, environmental evolution and historical human occupation: the Mediterranean region.

A better understanding of the evolution of these systems will provide useful information to European policymakers for the establishment of adequate environmental management and protection policies for the Mediterranean area in general, and for the two lake systems. Comparison of results with available Mediterranean marine sequences will allow deciphering the relationships between palaeoceanographic dynamics and palaeoclimatic evolution. Finally, the integration of marine, terrestrial and archaeological results will allow constraining the history of human-environment interactions and the hydrological resources and the climate teleconnections across the Mediterranean area.

Funding

Spanish Ministery of Education