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The current MARCAL project is the continuation of our previous projects aiming climate variability research in the western Mediterranean. The project focuses on ultra-high resolution analysis of marine records in order to reconstruct the climate variability and its impact in the Iberian Peninsula during the last glacial cycle, in particular through rapid and abrupt climate changes. Although the Holocene has been traditionally considered as a climatically stable period, it has been punctuated by rapid oscillations that are still poorly understood. Characterizing and understanding such oscillation will contribute to that of the climate dynamics and to unravel the response of the climate subsystems -atmosphere (eolian input fluctuations), lithosphere (sedimentary regime), oceans (circulation and water oxygenation) and biosphere (productivity, plankton and benthos response)- to abrupt climate changes. This research extends further to the present time and historical data since the interpretation of the climate variability and that of the response of the different climate components requires the understanding of the climate system at lager scales. Only within this frame, cyclicity can be addressed to predict future climate variations and their effects. Aiming these objectives, marine records from the western Mediterranean and its Atlantic connection have been selected. Here high sedimentation rates (especially in the Alboran Sea basin) together with a continuous sedimentation provide excellent conditions to analyze global and regional climate changes at ultra-high resolution. Additionally, previous results from the research team have demonstrated the climate responses significantly varied from the western to the eastern regions of the Mediterranean and new studies in fine spatial detail adapted to our Iberian regions are required to understand the effect of the climate variability and the responses of the climate subsystems in such regions. The integration of the marine records information with that of terrestrial archives (lakes, cave deposits) and long term instrumental series will provide a better understanding of the climate responses as well as a correct calibration of climate proxies.
MARCAL is one of the four coordinated projects of CALIBRE, which represents a multi-archive, multiproxy, and multidiciplinary effort to coordinate several research groups dealing with different aspects of the climate system at a regional scale. Over thirty scientists have teamed up to decode present and past climate variability in the Iberian Peninsula, focusing on periods of rapid climate change. The synergies created by the collaborative activities will stimulate the research in the paleo-climate community and the meteorological community, and help to bridge the differences in methodologies and approaches. The multidisciplinary scientific team and the combined research methodologies and strategies are an adequate response to the multifaceted nature of the global change challenge. The other three teams are:
- CLICAL aims compilation of the long term series of climate variables in Spain to reconstruct the modern climate variability and the climate trends.
- LIMNOCAL calibrates the relationships between lacustrine proxy records with climate variables.
- CAVECAL calibrates the relationships between speleothem deposits proxy records with climate variables.