Fig. 1. Bathymetric map of the central Mediterranean Sea showing core location on the Sardinian–Sicilian sill. Dashed lines indicate the main surface water circulation (Astraldi et al., 2002). The location of the Sicilian Strait (SIC) station of Vicomed expeditions is also shown. Inset above a map of the Mediterranean region, inset below a bathymetric profile of the Mediterranean.

Fig. 2. Proxies for the stratigraphic and climatic framework assessment, plotted versus the inferred age (kyr BP). From the left, N. pachyderma dx δ¹⁸O from Dinarès-Turell et al. (2003), arrows show identifications of isotopic events in their age model. Magnetic property ratios of the sediment: median destructive field of the anhysteretic remanence magnetisation (MDF_ARM) and κ_ARM/κ ratio. Arrows indicate age assignments adopted in the present work. Downcore variations of calcareous plankton are considered as proxies for relative water mass temperature changes and for biostratigraphic indications. The grey band on the right indicates the extent of the last interglacial s.l. (Kukla et al., 2002), with the top marked following Shackleton et al. (2003).

Fig. 3. Age–depth plot as adopted in this work compared to the previous age model (dashed line) reported by Dinarès-Turell et al. (2003). The age of tie points is imported from Imbrie et al. (1984) (see Table 1).

Fig. 4. Downcore variations of calcareous plankton considered as possible proxies for salinity, plotted versus age (kyr BP). For nannofossils the plots in black are percentage abundances in the initial count of all nannofossils, the plots in light grey are percentage abundances in the additional counts excluding dominant taxa.

Fig. 5. Downcore variations of calcareous plankton considered as proxies for vertical water mass structure and paleoproductivity changes and of the Ba_XS curve, plotted versus age (kyr BP). For C. pelagicus the plots in black are percentage abundances in the initial count of all nannofossils, the plots in light grey are percentage abundances in the additional counts excluding dominant taxa. The heavy black line superimposed on the Ba_XS curve is a 3-pt moving average. The column on the right indicates the age and duration of organic rich layers found in ODP Site 977 (Alboran Sea), following Pérez-Folgado et al. (2004).

Fig. 6. Downcore variations of calcareous nannofossil taxa (including the dinoflagellate T. heimii) generally reported in the literature to have an ecological preference for warm and low-nutrient water masses, plotted versus age (kyr BP). The dashed line filled in light grey is representative of calcareous nannofossil additional counts. The interval of minimum Ba_XS values (from Fig. 5) is indicated on the right.

Fig. 7. Shannon index curve for the calcareous nannofossil assemblages. The grey band on the right indicates the extent of the last interglacial s.l. (Kukla et al., 2002), with the top marked following Shackleton et al. (2003).

Events, and their depth, adopted for the age model construction

The ages are imported from Imbrie et al. (1984). The column on the right indicates the sampling resolutions for calcareous plankton and magnetic property of the sediment analyses, carried out every 1 cm.