A continuous record of both marine and continental paleoenvironments in the Western Mediterranean has been investigated on the same samples from the composite core of Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) Leg 161, Site 976. Palynological analyses (pollen, dinoflagellate cysts, and organic matter) document the continental and marine paleoenvironmental changes in the Alboran Sea Basin from the beginning of the Pleistocene to the Holocene. The marine and continental records have been correlated to climate and/or hydrological changes.
The pollen record depicts the vegetation changes in southern Spain and in North Africa along the Pleistocene and Holocene. Variability in abundant and diversified dinoflagellate cyst assemblages permits us to identify climatic and hydrological variations of surface waters along the whole sequence. During the upper Pleistocene, eight climatic cycles are evidenced both in marine and continental paleoenvironments and correlated to the 
18O curve. Focus on the last 28 calendar ka (cal ka) exhibits the major climatic events of the last climatic cycle: Last Glacial Maximum, Oldest Dryas, Bölling/Alleröd, Younger Dryas, and Holocene. Periods of enhanced productivity are evidenced between 19 and 17 cal ka and during the Younger Dryas.
1Examples
of how to reference the whole or part of this volume can be found under "Citations"
in the preliminary pages of the volume.
2ESA 7073 CNRS
"Paléontologie et Stratigraphie," Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), case courrier 116-117, 4 Place
Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France. nebout@ccr.jussieu.fr.
3URA 197, Département de Géologie et Océanographie, Université Bordeaux I, Avenue des facultés, 33405 Talence cedex, France.
4Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany.
5GEOMAR Research Center for marine Geosciences, Wischhofstrasse 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Federal Republic of Germany.
Date of initial
receipt: 5 May 1997
Date of acceptance: 16 December 1997
Reproduced online: 29 January 2004
Ms 161SR-238
