MEDITERRANEAN POLLEN STRATIGRAPHY ACROSS THE EARLY-MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE BOUNDARY

Abstract

The Mediterranean preserves a detailed history of the past climate cycles and brings together an elevated number of GSSPs. In the recent years, the efforts to establish the GSSP for the Middle Pleistocene in the Mediterranean have received substantial assistance from palynology. In the present paper, we compare pollen data from two successions both encompassing the Early-Middle Pleistocene boundary: the Montalbano Jonico section and ODP core 976. Other coeval Mediterranean and extra-Mediterranean records were evaluated to corroborate the climate structure and stratigraphy revealed across the Stage boundary.