Yttrium and REE signature recognized in Central Mediterranean Sea (ODP Site 963) during the MIS 6–MIS 5 transition P. Censi a,b, ⁎, A. Incarbona c , E. Oliveri b , S. Bonomo b , G. Tranchida b a Dipartimento C.F.T.A., Università di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 36, 90123 Palermo, Italy b I.A.M.C.-CNR UO di capo Granitola, Via faro 1, 91021 Torretta Granitola, Campobello di Mazara (Tp), Italy c Dipartimento di Geologia e Geodesia, Università di Palermo, Via Archirafi 22, 90123 Palermo, Italy abstract article info Article history: Received 15 September 2009 Received in revised form 15 March 2010 Accepted 17 March 2010 Available online 27 March 2010 Keywords: Ytrium rare earth elements Ce anomaly Central Mediterranean Late Quaternary Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction The Mediterranean Sea acts as a miniature ocean with the development of its own conveyor belt. It constitutes an ideal location to study and forecast how the marine environment responds to rapid climatic change. Here we present a palaeoenvironmental study carried out on the sediments of ODP Site 963, recovered in the Sicily Channel, the sill which divides the western from the eastern Mediterranean basin. We focused on the transition between the penultimate glacial (MIS 6) and the last interglacial (MIS 5), between approximately 130 and 115 kyr BP. A novel approach is proposed, taking into account centennial-scale geochemical data on major elements, selected trace elements, and yttrium and REE (YREE). This approach was demonstrated to be suitable to recognize both environmental conditions existing during deposition of the studied sequences and to establish whether diagenetic modifications of the original geochemical signature occurred. Our results highlight the delivery of Fe-rich material to the basin, probably from the arid continental environment of southern Sicily. This phenomenon seems to be interrupted in coincidence with the development of Eemian forests at about 126–127 kyr BP in southern Europe. The deposition of weathered products suggests increate humidity in Sicily between 127 and 124 kyr BP. Less oxidizing/more productive conditions characterized the Sicily Channel sea floor between 124 and 119 kyr BP, while sapropel S5 was depositing in the eastern Mediterranean. They are evidenced by the enrichment of heavy REE, the decrease in positive Ce anomaly, and a slight increase in excess barium. This implies that oceanographic processes which led to bottom anoxia in the eastern Mediterranean might have had an impact even on the Sicily Channel environment. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Mediterranean region has long been considered the centre of western civilization, with the development of the ancient Mesopota- mian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. Historical climate data series are available and are exploited for long-term forecasting and for Global Change modelling (Bolle, 2003). In fact, the Mediterranean Sea acts as a miniature ocean, with the formation of intermediate and deep waters and the flow of its own conveyor belt, mechanisms which constitute an amplified response to climate forcing. Given its middle- latitude location, it represents a key area for studying the connection between high- and low-latitude climatic systems and for projections of future climate change (Bethoux et al., 1999; Cubasch et al., 2001). One of the most attractive aspects of the Mediterranean Sea palaeoceanography concerns the development of anoxia in the eastern Mediterranean, evidenced by the deposition of dark, often laminated, organic-rich sediments called sapropels. Since their discovery after World War II in the course of a Sweden oceanographic expedition (Kullenberg, 1952), numerous explanations have been formulated, taking into account eustatic sea level fluctuations, glacial meltwater release, and dissolution of exposed Messinian evaporite sequences (Rohling, 1994; Cramp and O'Sullivan, 1999). Indeed, sapropel formation has been tightly linked to cyclical global climate phenomena like variations in the Earth's orbit and shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Northern summer insolation maxima would have led to a northward shift of the ITCZ in northeast Africa, widening hydrographic catchment basins. A strong runoff from the Nile and other now buried North African river systems would have released an extended lens of freshwater into the eastern Mediterranean, altering the delicate equilibrium of oceanographic circulation and provoking the failure of deep water formation (Rossignol-Strick, 1983, 1985; Hilgen, 1991; Lourens et al., 1996; Rohling et al., 2002). A regional-scale increase in primary productiv- ity, possibly as a result of the nutricline shoaling within the photic zone, could have contributed to the organic matter preservation (Rohling and Gieskes, 1989; Pedersen and Calvert, 1990; Castradori, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 292 (2010) 201–210 ⁎ Corresponding author. Dipartimento C.F.T.A., Università di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 36, 90123 Palermo, Italy. Tel.: +39 3479662844. E-mail address: censi@unipa.it (P. Censi). 0031-0182/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.03.045 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo