Department of Geography, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, V94 VN26 Limerick, Ireland
Antonio Caruso
Dipartimento di e Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche della Terra e del Mare (STEBICEF), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 18, 90123 Palermo, Italy
Lucilla Capotondi
Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR), CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
Teresa Broggy
Department of Geography, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, V94 VN26 Limerick, Ireland
Isabel Cacho
GRC Geociències Marines, Departamento de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Francisco J. Sierro
Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
The planktonic foraminiferal species Globorotalia truncatulinoides is widely used as a biostratigraphic proxy for the Quaternary in the Mediterranean region. High-resolution quantitative studies performed on sediment cores collected in the central and western Mediterranean Sea evidence a significant abundance of G. truncatulinoides during the Middle Holocene. The robust chronological frame allows us to date this bio-event to 4.8–4.4 ka Before Present (BP), very close to the base of the Meghalayan stage (4.2 ka BP). As a consequence, we propose that G. truncatulinoides can be considered a potential marker for the Middle–Late Holocene chronological subdivision. G. truncatulinoides is a deep-dwelling planktonic foraminifer and their distributional pattern in the central and western Mediterranean Sea provides a tool to monitor the onset of the regional deep vertical mixing of the water column. During the Holocene, the significant increase in the abundance of this species is in phase with the end of African Humid Period, which marks the transition from a more humid climate to the present-day semi-arid climate.
