by Biagio Giaccio, Bernd Wagner, Laura Sadori, Giovanni Zanchetta

During the last 5 million years (5 Myr, Pliocene-Holocene) the Earth climate system underwent a series of marked changes, including the (i) shifting from the Pliocene warm state to the Pleistocene cold state, (ii) the changing in frequency, magnitude and shape of the orbital-scale glacial-interglacial (the Early Middle Pleistocene Transition, 1.4-0.5 Ma) and (ii) the insurgence of an extreme and pervasive millennial-scale climate variability (last 800 kyr, at least). While much data are available from marine records, relatively little is known about the impact of these major reorganization and changes of the climate system on the environmental and biodiversity dynamic in terrestrial realms, resulting in a significant gap of our knowledge about the response of these fundamental components of the Earth's ecosystems to climate change. Long, continuous, high-resolved and chronologically well-constrained terrestrial records are in fact extremely rare. The Fucino Basin, central Italy, likely is unique in the Mediterranean having the potential of meeting all these uncommon requisites. It is the largest and probably only Central Apennine basin hosting a continuous and thick lacustrine succession from the early Pliocene to recent historical times. Furthermore, it is geographically ideally located to record the intense and continuous explosive activity from the peri-Tyrrhenian volcanic system since 4.2 Ma, at least. The exceptional concurrence of these geological factors makes the Fucino Basin one of the really rare terrestrial succession that could provide a continuous and high-resolution record of Plio-Quaternary environmental changes supported by a precisely 40Ar/39Ar-dated chronological framework. The aim of our project is to gain insights into the mode and tempo of Plio-Quaternary geo-bio-environmental changes at different spatial and temporal scales, by extending the 40Ar/39Ar independent-dated Fucino lacustrine record back to 5 Ma. This project proposal share the same temporal target of the IOPD Expedition 397, site U1385 (Iberian margin), for which Fucino can provide fundamental, integrative chronological and paleoenvironmental information from the terrestrial realm. The main aim of the proposed workshop is to allow participants to (i) review and discuss all available data, (ii) design a well-coordinated research program, (iii) consolidate an international partnership and (iv) write a full ICDP proposal for financial support of a future deep-drilling campaign in the Fucino Basin.

• Specific objectives of MEME proposal comprise:
• Assembling a reference record for the last 5 Myr event stratigraphy, including and combining orbital- to millennial-scale climatostratigraphy, tephrostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy and cosmogenic nuclide stratigraphy.
• Reconstructing climate conditions during the warm Pliocene and the transition to colder Pleistocene;
• Evaluating timing and differences of the interglacials and glacial terminations;
• Exploring millennial-scale variability during glacial times within the Central Mediterranean;
• Evaluating the longitudinal influence of changes in North Atlantic circulation patterns by a west-east transect;
• Reconstructing the response of Mediterranean environments and biomes to global changes during the warm Pliocene, the progressive expansion of the NH ice sheets during the Plio-Pleistocene transition, and the changing in periodicity, magnitude and shape of the glacial-interglacial cycles during the EMPT and after the Mid-Brunhes Event.
• Establishing the timing and causes of the progressive extirpation of forest species in the Mediterranean.
• Generating a reference, vegetation-based record to assess the palaeoenvironmental background to early hominin migration and occupation in Western Eurasia.
• Assessing the tempo and dynamics of the explosive volcanism of the peri-Tyrrhenian region and of the opening and tectonic evolution of the Fucino Basin.

Climate-Biodiversity Variability, Mediterranean, Pliocene-Quaternary, Tephro Chronology

Latitude: 42.00339, Longitude: 13.56094