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

非洲西北部的气候基本上是由季风环流控制的，热带间辐合带(ITCZ)向北(夏季)和南部(冬季)的季节变化。在最近的地质历史中，北非的气候一再变得潮湿，但今天，阿特拉斯山脉构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化石作为独特的自然实验室，研究气候在空间和时间上的变化。在这里，第一阶段被提议集中于北部中部地图集的洞穴。随后的第二和第三阶段将处理从反阿特拉斯到南部的洞穴问题和从该带本身(因此涉及地形方面)的洞穴问题。所有记录的对比比较将允许高分辨率、精确的气候变化记录在过去125 KYR。阿特拉斯气候样带的目标是：(1)建立详细的、基于洞穴的非洲西北部125 KYR古气候记录；(2)迄今确定非洲西北部气候带变化的影响，特别是非洲西北部日益干旱的影响；(3)评估大陆架与来自地中海和摩洛哥大西洋东部边缘的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.