Tracing the late Holocene evolution of the NW Iberian upwelling system

This work analyses data from the OMEX core KSGX 40 (164-cm long) collected in the Galicia Mud Deposit, from the NW Iberian outer continental shelf, off the Ria de Vigo (North Spain). Sediment grain-size and benthic foraminifera distribution patterns indicate a number of substantial changes in sedimentation and also food/oxygen availability to the benthic ecosystem during the last ∼4.8 ka cal BP. Cluster analysis (Q-mode and R-mode) based on the most abundant taxa was used to recognize similarities within the data set. Three main clusters were established by Q-mode cluster analysis. The species distribution pattern of two of these three clusters is clearly related with changes in texture of the sediments. Textural data and benthic foraminifera proxies suggest that between ∼4.8 and 2.2 ka cal BP there was a period of higher hydrodynamism, with more energetic oceanic currents associated with shelf mixed waters. The period since ∼2.2 ka cal BP until present was characterized by generally lower bottom energetic conditions and by a supply of finer sediment, which was richer in organic matter leading to more eutrophic conditions in the benthic environment, mainly between ∼2.2 and 1.2 ka cal BP and since ∼0.5 ka cal BP until the present. Eutrophication was probably determined by strong water column stratified conditions and by coastal upwelling-dominated depositional intervals and/or by higher lateral flux of organic carbon. Since the upwelling increasing periods are in general due the intensification of northerly winds, both most productive upwelling-dominated periods may be attributed to climatic/oceanographic induced changes during the Sub-Atlantic climate. Small sea levels oscillations also should contribute to these results. Eutrophication since the end of Little Ice Age may be related to human influence in coastal areas.