非洲季风的演化对于理解全球气候变化的"热带驱动"具有重要意义，而要理解非洲季风在轨道尺度上的演化必须有较长时间尺度上连续的沉积记录。本次研究旨在通过对位于东地中海中部的ODP 969站合成深度最上部45米沉积物进行粘土矿物学和元素地球化学分析，以获得第四纪以来东地中海中部陆源碎屑输入的连续的高分辨率沉积记录。结合在东地中海东部黎凡特海盆和西部艾奥尼亚海已取得的研究成果，建立尼罗河河流输入和撒哈拉粉尘输入在东地中海的替代性指标，重建非洲季风第四纪以来的变化及其控制因素。该项研究预期将回答非洲季风演化研究中的若干重要科学问题，有望在海洋沉积学和沉积地球化学方面对非洲季风演化的研究提供帮助。

Evolution of the African monsoon during the geological time is essential to the understanding of the "tropical forcing mechanism" of the global climate system. In order to understand the evolution of the African monsoon on the orbital timescale, it is, however, necessary to obtain a continous sedimentary record that covers at least several climatic cycles. In this study, we plan to perform clay mineralogical and XRF core scanning geochemical elemental analyses on marine sediment of the topmost 45 mcd (meters composite depth) of ODP Site 969 in the eastern Mediterranean Basin in order to acquire a continous sedimentary record of terrigenous inputs during the last 2 Ma. Combined with the results obtained in the previous studies from the Levantine Basin and the Ionian Sea, we aim to built new proxies for fluvial inputs from the Nile River and eolian dust inputs from the Sahara Desert. Based on the results of this study, we expect to reconstruct the evolution of the African monsoon system during the Quaternary Period and to investigate the major controlling factors that affect the changes of African monsoon intensities on the orbital scale. By doing this study, we anticipate to answer the key questions in the understanding of the evolution of African monsoon from the sedimentological and geochemical aspects.