It is hypothesized and tested for the first time, that the large-scale diversity patterns of foraminifera communities are determined by sea surface temperature (ISST, representing energy), Chl-a (a surrogate for photosynthetic biomass) and ocean kinetic energy (as EKE). Alpha diversity was estimated using species richness (S), Shannon Wiener index (H), and Simpson evenness (E), and mapped using geostatistical a...
The Sines Contourite Drift (SCD), located in the Alentejo margin, southwest Iberian continental margin, has been through many depositional phases in result of dimatic variations and bottom current oscillations, which determined a variable depositional pattern and an irregular sedimentary evolution since the Late Pleistocene. The SCD, being in the main path of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW), which greatly...
Centennial-to-millennial scale records from IODP Site U1387, drilled during IODP Expedition 339 into the Faro Drift at 558 m water depth, now allow evaluating the climatic history of the upper core of the Mediterranean Outflow (MOW) and of the surface waters in the northern Gulf of Cadiz during the early Pleistocene. This study focuses on the period from Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 29 to 34, i.e. the interval s...