Marine palynology of the Black Sea-Medeterranean corridor

黑海-地中海走廊是一个由相互关联的海洋盆地组成的区域，从黑海延伸到地中海东部，位于欧洲和亚洲的十字路口。自2001年以来，加拿大地质调查局-纪念大学团队表明，海洋孢粉学(研究花粉、淡水和海洋浮游生物孢子)是研究气候记录、考古学和海洋温度、盐度和生产力档案之间联系的最佳工具。我们的研究是加拿大对联合国项目的贡献，该项目分析气候和海平面变化对人类的影响，并展示区域水文地质学如何影响北大西洋的全球水循环、盐度和热量输送。这项研究至关重要，因为在全球和区域范围内，地球水循环的变化是社会面临的最大挑战。加拿大气候科学家需要我们研究的数据来验证海洋-大气相互作用的计算机模型。一个新的研究生项目将研究走廊中的钙质藻类孢子，以限制人类改变景观前后长达2万至10万年的气候记录的温度和盐度估计。走廊的深盆地含有富含有机质的腐泥岩，这些腐泥岩是产天然气和产石油的黑色页岩的前体。马尔马拉海和爱琴海的大陆和海洋沉积物为研究导致油气形成的过程提供了无与伦比的机会。另一个研究生项目将研究北部贸易风系统和南部季风系统交界处的爱琴海核心，并分析马尔马拉、爱琴海和尼罗河的记录，以显示大气强迫和河流洪水如何触发腐殖层形成。结果将是追踪季风和尼罗河洪水历史的十年尺度花粉记录，以及关于浮游生物产量和盐度的新数据。我们的新方法和对国际数据库的访问将为洪水与碳生产出口之间的辩论提供洞察力，并提供广泛的测试环境，以完善来自加拿大孢粉学数据库的气候预测。腐泥研究还将有利于加拿大寻找新的海上燃料资源。

The Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor is a region of interconnected marine basins extending from the Black Sea to Eastern Mediterranean, at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Since 2001, the Geological Survey Canada - Memorial University team has shown that marine palynology (study of pollen, freshwater and marine plankton spores) is the best tool to study links between climate records, archeology, and marine archives of temperature, salinity and productivity. Our studies are Canada's contribution to a United Nations program analyzing impacts of climate and sea level change on humans, and showing how regional hydrogeology affects global water cycles, salinity and heat transport in the North Atlantic. This research is vital because on both global and regional scale, changes in Earth's water cycle are the greatest challenge to society. Data from our studies are needed by Canadian climate scientists to validate computer models of ocean-atmosphere interactions. A new graduate-student project will study calcareous algal spores in the Corridor to constrain temperature and salinity estimates for 20,000-100,000 yr-long records of climate before and after human alteration of landscapes. Deep basins of the Corridor contain organic-rich sapropels, the precursors of gas and petroleum-producing black shales. Continental and marine sediments in the Marmara and Aegean Seas offer unparalled opportunity to study processes leading to oil/gas formation. Another graduate-student project will examine Aegean cores at the interface of northern trade- and southern monsoon-wind systems and analyze Marmara, Aegean and Nile records to show how atmospheric forcing and river flooding trigger sapropel formation. Outcomes will be decadal-scale pollen records tracing the history of monsoons and Nile floods, and new data on plankton production and salinity. Our new methods and access to international databases will provide insight to debates about flooding vs. carbon production export, and provide a wide range of test environments to refine climate predictions derived from Canada's palynology database. The sapropel studies will also benefit Canada's search for new offshore fuel resources.