Making stratigraphy in the Anthropocene: Tracing multidecadal Pollution in the mAriNe seDimentary recOrd off the Coast of GRAnada (Alboran Sea, western Mediterranean)

All over the world, pollution is one of the ultimate environmental concerns.

Europes seas and coastal zones are heavily impacted by human activities, resulting in significant pollution since the beginning of the industrial age and particularly since 1900.

In Europe, this major concern is linked to cycles of development and use of new elements and compounds, followed by identification of pollution levels and risks, eventually leading to the implementation of restrictions on their use, often through national, European and international legal instruments.

Yet there are critical knowledge gaps that can interfere with the justification and implementation of such policies.

One is the provision of stratigraphic data on the long-term (historical) impacts of such regulations on widespread environmental concentrations of target pollutants.

The PANDORA project will fill this void by providing an innovative approach, combining high-resolution data on heavy metal and microplastic concentrations, over time, determining possible sources of contamination, and quantifying their effects on benthic foraminifera growth patterns and calcification.

The scope of this project is a shelf-to-slope transect of time-resolved stratigraphic archives recovered in the northern margin of the Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean).