The palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic history of the Gulf of Taranto (Mediterranean Sea) in the last 15 ky

A multidisciplinary study, which includes micropaleontology, sedimentology and geochemistry, was carried outon the TEA-C6 core, raised in the Gulf of Taranto (north-western Ionian Sea). The chronological framework wasyielded by tephrostratigraphy combined with ecostratigraphy and AMS 14C dating. New results allowed surfaceand bottom conditions in the Gulf of Taranto during the last 15 ky to be reconstructed, thus providing a detailedand age-constrained paleoclimate and paleocological record for this sector of the Mediterranean Sea. Thequantitative record of past sea surface temperatures (SST) was obtained by means of Compositional DataAnalysis (CoDA) methods applied to planktonic foraminifera assemblages. High-resolution analyses allowed theSapropel S1 event to be characterised at centennial-scale resolution. The main interval of the sapropel S1, heredated between 10.2 cal ka and 7.8 cal ka, is preceded and followed by transition phases spanning several centuriesand prevailing anoxic bottom conditions are punctuated by several episodes of partial oxygen recovery.The S1a interval corresponds to high summer SST, whereas an SST drop of about 2.5° took place towards the endof the S1b interval. New tephrochronological data record the signature of eruptive events from Italian volcanoeswhich were not documented on land up to date.