Climate change during the modern interglacial and the impact human activities

Interglacial intervals (like the last 10.000 years) encompass about 10% of geological time and represent an exception in a systems that maintains glacial conditions. It is therefore necessary to: 1) know the ocean circulation, ocean-athmosphere interaction, and productivity that characterise interglacial periods, 2) define the succession of events that characterises the late interglacial and the transition to the following glaciation and 3) locate the areas where most likely this change is first triggered. Discriminate the influence of human activities (through the emission of green-house gasses since the onset of the industrial revolution), compared to natural trends of the ocean-athmosphere-biosphere system is necessary to better constrain the confidence limits within which a scenario of future change is possible. Of particular interest is the study of older interglacial intervals (like Marine Isotope Stages 5, 11 e 31) characterised by higher temperature but by lower CO2 values then those characterising the modern interglacial.

During the entire Holocene (last 10 thousand years), the human impact on forests, soils, hydrographic networks and coastal systems has increased steadily gene rating consequences at both local and global scales. Deltaic and shallow water deposits in the Mediterranean constitute an historical and pre-historical archive to study climatic changes and human impact starting from the Bronze Age (ca 3500 years BP) and in other relevant periods like the Medeval climatic optimum land the Little Ice Age (1450-1880 AD).