KarstHives 2 - Climate Archives in Karst 2019-2023

The Karsthives project proposes an integrated approach based upon a multi-proxy analysis of the various paleoclimate archives from caves and karst deposits. Out of these, the most important are the stable isotopes, chemical (trace elements), and mineralogical variations in speleothems (calcite formations in caves), magnetic properties of fluviatile or lacustrine sediments, fossil and sub-fossil species and faunal associations, stable isotopes and composition of the underground ice accumulations. Most of the above deposits bear information relevant for the paleoclimate evolution at regional scale and their high-resolution radiometric datings allow signal calibration and comparative analysis of the different time-series. The combination of the data measured from various proxies from cave environment (speleothems, sediments, fossil, ice) within the same cave or karst area allow: (1) to overcome the limitations of  some dating methods; (2) to combine different climate records into a composite record; (3) to carry on time-series analyses taking into account regional or global climate records and to identify the regional constrains of climate oscillations. The data may be calibrated by isotope analysis of newly-precipitated calcite in laboratory-caves correlated with the monitoring of both surface weather conditions and underground microclimate and physical parameters. The conversion of the variations of isotope from cave deposits into variations of temperature or other parameters (precipitation source, vegetation cover, biological activity in soil) allow us validate and/or develop new models for abrupt climate oscillations at millennial or centenial scales. 

Project duration: June 2019 - May 2023

Total budget: 1,500,000 EUR

A project supported through the EEA Grants 2014-2021

Project code EEA-RO-NO-2018-0126