Suborbital climate variability during Marine Isotopic Stage 5 in the central Mediterranean basin: evidence from calcareous plankton record.

New faunal and floral records from Ocean Drilling Project Hole 963A, resolved at ∼80-year spacing, provide evidence of suborbital scale climate variability in the central Mediterranean Sea throughout Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5. Cold events in the central Mediterranean Sea, indicated by low abundances of warm species and high abundances of cold species, are also evident in a planktonic foraminifera paleoclimatic curve. They have been linked to NGRIP Greenland ice core “C” events and appear correlative with similar sub-millennial climate fluctuations identified in the North Atlantic region and in the Alboran Basin (Westernmost Mediterranean). Low-resolution benthic and planktonic Oxygen Isotope fluctuations parallel trends in the surface records evidenced by planktonic assemblage fluctuations, bolstering their interpretation as climate proxies. Climate events also occur in the Mediterranean between named “C” events, and may be coeval with additional climate events identified recently in the western subtropical Atlantic. Hence, we propose that frequent climate oscillations during MIS 5 characterize both sides of the mid-latitude North Atlantic, perhaps indicating millennial scale variations in mid-latitude atmospheric patterns.