In order to reconstruct palaeoclimate in the Western Mediterranean, the variety of terrestrial archives investigated by the C-Cluster will be extended by speleothems. In collaboration with the working group of Prof. Dr. Denis Scholz (Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany) these sensitive recorders will be analysed. Further data including precipitation, temperature and vegetation changes will be correlated with other off-site and on-site archives. Moreover, age control of past environmental changes will be improved by precise dating of the speleothems with the U-series-method providing us with a high temporal resolution.
Our first site for this approach will be the Ardales Cave in southwestern Spain. Here, on-site studies as well as some off-site studies in near-by saline lakes (e.g. Laguna de Fuente de Piedra) have already been performed and look prosperous to achieve robust records of palaeoenvironmental changes. In September, the first samples will be recovered from the Ardales Cave, supported by Prof. Dr. Pedro Cantalejo, the archaeologist in Ardales.
Panoramic view taken in front of Ardales Cave in northern direction | Photo: Nicole Höbig