Holocene speleothem-based climate record for the SW Mediterranean area (Middle Atlas; Morocco)

非洲西北部的气候基本上受季风环流控制，热带辐合带季节性地向北（夏季）和向南（冬季）移动。在最近的地质历史中，北方非洲的气候反复潮湿，但今天阿特拉斯山脉形成了北部季节性潮湿的地中海气候和南部干旱的撒哈拉气候之间的屏障。我们打算利用阿特拉斯带的洞穴沉积物作为调查时空气候变化的独特天然实验室。在这里，第一阶段的重点是从中阿特拉斯在北部的洞穴。随后的第二和第三阶段将处理从反阿特拉斯到南部和带本身的洞穴沉积物（因此涉及地形方面）。所有记录的对比比较将允许在过去125 kyr的气候变化的高分辨率，精确的日期记录。阿特拉斯气候样带的目的是：（一）为非洲西北部建立一个详细的、以洞穴积土为基础的125 kyr的古气候记录;（二）确定ITCZ移动的影响，特别是非洲西北部阿特拉斯南北和带内关键地点干旱增加的影响;以及（iii）评估地中海和摩洛哥东大西洋边缘的大陆与现有海洋记录的联系程度。

Climate in NW Africa is basically controlled by monsoonal circulation with seasonal shifts of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to the north (summer) and to the south (winter). In the recent geologic past climates in northern Africa were repeatedly wetter, but today the Atlas Mountain range forms the barrier between the seasonally humid Mediterranean climate to the north and arid Saharan climate to the south. We intend to exploit speleothems from the Atlas Belt as unique natural laboratories for the investigation of climate changes in space and time. Here, Phase I is proposed focussing on speleothems from the Middle-Atlas in the north. The subsequent phases II and III will deal with speleothems from the Anti-Atlas to the south and from the belt itself (hence involving orographic aspects). The contrast comparison of all records will allow for a high-resolution, precisely dated record of climate change across the last 125 kyr. The aims of the Atlas Climate Transect are (i) to establish a detailed, speleothem-based 125 kyr palaeoclimate record for NW Africa; (ii) to date and determine the effects of the shifting ITCZ and particularly the increasing aridity in NW Africa in key localities to the north and south of the Atlas and within the belt itself; and (iii) to assess the extent of the connection of continental with existing marine records from the Mediterranean and the E Atlantic margins of Morocco.