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New speleothem data from Molinos and Ejulve caves reveal Holocene hydrological variability in northeast Iberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

Ana Moreno ,
Carlos Pérez-Mejías ,
Miguel Bartolomé ,
Carlos Sancho ,
Isabel Cacho ,
Heather Stoll ,
Antonio Delgado-Huertas ,
John Hellstrom ,
R. Lawrence Edwards  and
Hai Cheng
Ana Moreno*
Affiliation:
Department of Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology – CSIC, Avenida Montañana 1005 50059, Zaragoza, Spain
Carlos Pérez-Mejías
Affiliation:
Department of Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology – CSIC, Avenida Montañana 1005 50059, Zaragoza, Spain Earth Sciences Department, University of Zaragoza, C/Pedro Cerbuna 12 50009, Zaragoza, Spain
Miguel Bartolomé
Affiliation:
Department of Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology – CSIC, Avenida Montañana 1005 50059, Zaragoza, Spain Earth Sciences Department, University of Zaragoza, C/Pedro Cerbuna 12 50009, Zaragoza, Spain
Carlos Sancho
Affiliation:
Earth Sciences Department, University of Zaragoza, C/Pedro Cerbuna 12 50009, Zaragoza, Spain
Isabel Cacho
Affiliation:
CRG Marine Geosciences, Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences, Faculty of Geology, University of Barcelona, C/Martí i Franqués, s/nº 08028, Barcelona, Spain
Heather Stoll
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Oviedo, C/Arias de Velasco, s/nº 33005 Oviedo, Spain Geological Institute, NO G59, Department of Earth Sciences, Sonneggstrasse 5, ETH 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
Antonio Delgado-Huertas
Affiliation:
Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory, IACT-CSIC, Avda. de Las Palmeras nº 4 18100, Armilla, Granada, Spain
John Hellstrom
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
R. Lawrence Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, 310 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
Hai Cheng
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, 310 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xian 710075, China Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, China
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology – CSIC, Avenida Montañana 1005, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Moreno).
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Abstract

New speleothem records from northeastern Iberian caves provide data to explore the climatic patterns during the Holocene. We present δ13C and Mg/Ca from three speleothems from two different caves located in the Iberian Range allowing replication of the climatic signal for several millennia. Through the integration of those stalagmites covering since the Holocene onset to 2 ka, the early Holocene (11.7–8.5 ka) appears as the wettest interval. A marked change towards aridity is observed during the middle Holocene (8.5–4.8 ka) and an increase of humidity afterwards (4.8–2 ka). This three-part pattern, contrasting with other Iberian sequences, seems to be associated with the different role that seasonality has played in the response of different proxies (or records) to changes in water availability. Interpreting our speleothem records as changes in winter-spring precipitation along the Holocene allows reconciling previous data on hydrological variability from the western Mediterranean borderlands.

Keywords

Stable isotopesTrace metalsStalagmitesWinter-spring hydrologyIberiaHolocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , September 2017 , pp. 223 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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References

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