Glacio-eustatic variations and sapropel events as main controls on the Middle Pleistocene-Holocene evolution of the Cabliers Coral Mound Province (W Mediterranean)

• Main Authors: Anagnostou, E. (Author), Cacho, I. (Author), Corbera, G. (Author), Foster, G.L (Author), Huvenne, V.A.I (Author), Katsamenis, O. (Author), Lo Iacono, C. (Author), Standish, C.D (Author), Titschack, J. (Author), Van Rooij, D. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2021
• Subjects: Alboran sea; Alboran Sea; Anthozoa; Atlantic Ocean; Belt conveyors; biodiversity; Biodiversity; climate conditions; Climatic conditions; Cold-water coral mounds; Cold-water corals; coral; Coral mounds; Dendrophyllia cornigera; Deposits; Desmophyllum; Eastern Mediterranean; Food supply; glacioeustacy; growth; Holocene; interglacial; Interglacial periods; interstadial; Levantine intermediate waters; Madrepora oculata; Mediterranean basin; Mediterranean Sea; Middle Pleistocene; Oceanographic conditions; Paleoclimate; Pleistocene; sapropel; Sapropels; Water mass interface
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Cold-water coral mounds are key hot-spots of deep ocean biodiversity and also important archives of past climatic conditions. Nonetheless, the paleo-oceanographic setting in which coral mounds developed in the Mediterranean Sea during the last 500 ka still needs to be properly understood. This study describes the coral deposits and corresponding ages of two on-mound gravity cores acquired from opposite sectors of the newly discovered Cabliers Coral Mound Province (CMP, Alboran Sea, W Mediterranean). U–Th data revealed Pleistocene-aged corals covering mound formation periods from >389 to 9.3 ka BP and from 13.7 to 0.3 ka BP in the southern and northern mounds respectively. The coral-rich deposits of the cores were mainly dominated by Desmophyllum pertusum, although in some sections concurrent with the Middle Pleistocene and the Holocene, other corals such as Dendrophyllia cornigera and Madrepora oculata also appeared as dominating species. Coral mound formation stages generally occurred during deglacials and temperate interstadial (3.5–4.1 δ18O‰) periods, whereas during interglacials (<3.5 δ18O‰) coral mound formation only occurred in the northern and shallower mound. We interpret this to indicate that the shoaling of the interface between Atlantic (AW) and Levantine Intermediate Waters (LIW) during interglacial periods prevented the corals in the southern CMP from acquiring sufficient food supply, thus causing periods of coral mound stagnation. Similarly, the interruption in LIW formation throughout sapropel events also coincides with coral mound stagnation phases. This suggests that sapropel-derived processes, which originated in the eastern Mediterranean, likely affected the entire Mediterranean basin and further supports the role of LIW as a conveyor belt facilitating cold-water coral growth in the Mediterranean Sea. Overall, we show that these coral mounds yield important insights into how local changes in oceanographic conditions can influence coral mound development. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd