Articles | Volume 16, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-933-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-933-2020
Research article
 | 
02 Jun 2020
Research article |  | 02 Jun 2020

The mechanism of sapropel formation in the Mediterranean Sea: insight from long-duration box model experiments

Jan Pieter Dirksen and Paul Meijer

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Revised manuscript has not been submitted

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Subject: Ocean Dynamics | Archive: Modelling only | Timescale: Milankovitch
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Cited articles

Adloff, F., Mikolajewicz, U., Kučera, M., Grimm, R., Maier-Reimer, E., Schmiedl, G., and Emeis, K.-C.: Upper ocean climate of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea during the Holocene Insolation Maximum – a model study, Clim. Past, 7, 1103–1122, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-7-1103-2011, 2011. a
Amies, J., Rohling, E. J., and Grant, K. M.: Quantification of African Monsoon Runoff During Last Interglacial Sapropel S5, Paleoceanogr. Paleocl., 34, 1–30, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019PA003652, 2019. a, b, c, d
Ashkenazy, Y., Stone, P. H., and Malanotte-Rizzoli, P.: Box modeling of the Eastern Mediterranean sea, Physica A, 391, 1519–1531, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2011.08.026, 2012. a
Bale, N. J., Hennekam, R., Hopmans, E. C., Dorhout, D., Reichart, G.-j., Meer, M. V. D., Villareal, T. A., Damsté, J. S. S., and Schouten, S.: Biomarker evidence for nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial blooms in a brackish surface layer in the Nile River plume during sapropel deposition, Geology, XX, 1–5, https://doi.org/10.1130/G46682.1, 2019. a
Bensi, M., Cardin, V., Rubino, A., Notarstefano, G., and Poulain, P. M.: Effects of winter convection on the deep layer of the Southern Adriatic Sea in 2012, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 118, 6064–6075, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JC009432, 2013. a
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Short summary
In the geological record of the Mediterranean Sea, we find regular, dark, organic-rich intervals. The formation of these layers has been linked to climate change caused by variations of Earth’s orbit around the Sun and the orientation of Earth’s rotational axis on timescales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years. In this study we test the hypothesis derived from the geological record with a transient model and gain new insights into the link between climate change and oceanic circulation.