The main objective of CALIBRE project is to produce high-resolution long-term paleoclimate time series from the Iberian Peninsula to test hypotheses concerning the dynamics, cause and extent of the periods of rapid climate change. This study will provide some of the needed mid latitude continental records required to advance the understanding of the causes and ecosystem responses of these abrupt changes, which have more immediate importance in predicting future climate changes than the long term variations attributed to orbital forcing.

The detailed objectives of the CALIBRE proposal are:

1. Compile the long term series of climate variables in Spain close to the sites to be studied to reconstruct the modern climate variability and the climate trends.

2. Calibrate the relationships between lacustrine, marine and speleothems proxy records with climate variables.

3. Produce high resolution, well-dated, climate proxy records from terrestrial (cave speleothems and lake cores) and marine archives based on sedimentological, geochemical and biological analyses during past periods of rapid climate change.

4. Reconstruct some climate parameters and past climate variability in the IP during selected periods of rapid climate change.

5. Test several hypotheses concerning climate mechanisms during periods of rapid climate change in the Iberian Peninsula, at decadal, centennial and millennial scales.

Within this frame, specific objectives objectives of MARCAL project are:

1. Obtaining new marine records from the westernmost Mediterranean and Atlantic connections.

2. Chracterize, identify, date and reconstruct main climate fluctuations during the last gracial cycle with special input on rapid climate changes and climate extremes.

3. Establish climate response of the marine environment to climate variability:

1. Marine biological productivity.
2. Plankthonic and benthonic community responses.
3. Salinity and SSTs.
4. Seasonality.
5. Paleocirculation and oxygen conditions.
6. Biogeochemical cycles (with special input on nutrient, carbon and Ba cycles).
1. Interactions between productivity and climate change.

4. Establish the atmospheric response based on eolian input and sedimentary regimen reconstruction.

5. Anthropogenic influence on marines sediments.

6. Impact of climate variability on cultural human evolution in the Iberian peninsula.

7. Correlation of marine records with terrestrial records and long term series.

8. Analysis and identification of climate cycles.

Why study the western Mediterranean?

The Mediterranean represents one of the few marine environments in the world where small-scale climate change are amplified and preserved in the sedimentary record. Additionally, the westernmost Mediterranean is considered an exceptional natural laboratory for monitoring global and regional climate changes because high sedimentation rates provide optimal conditions for ultra-high-resolution analyses of climate changes. This region is connecting the Atlantic being both, Mediterranean and Atlantic, sensitive to mutual influences. As a result of its configuration, gradients in geochemical, sedimentological and biological parameters existed and exist today in the Mediterranean Sea, which provide important information on the response of the different basins to past, present and potential future climate changes.

Why the last 40.000 years?
During this time period dramatic changes such as the LGM, Younger Dryas, S1 deposition or Holocene optimum occurred. Analyzing the Mediterranean response to such changes in the past may contribute to a better understanding of this response to future climate changes. Furthermore, determining high resolution paleoclimatic changes and how these affected the Mediterranean regions will allow establishing changes that may have occurred regularly and potential responses in this sensitive region.