All results of the multi-proxy approach applied in this project will eventually be merged into a comprehensive and dated reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic history of the Dalmatian coast during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. This will offer the opportunity to reconstruct a paleoenvironment influenced by both marine and terrestrial process in a karst region. QMAD research efforts will focus on 7 different sites in the eastern Adriatic Sea.

1. Krka river estuary-Prokljan lake

2. Zlarin island-late Pleistocene /early Holocene estuary

3. Žirje island-Zlarin island LGM Krka river delta

4. Eastern Mid Adriatic Deep

5. Kornatski channel karst isolation basin

6. Telašćica isolation karst basin

7. Pirovački zaljev isolation karst basin

The QMAD project supports multidisciplinary research by application of the high-resolution geophysical surveys (multibeam, side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler), in combination with sedimentological, petrophysical, geochemical (trace elements and isotopes), micropaleontological (ostracod and foraminifera), mineralogical and aDNA techniques.

Legacy data and field work

  • Legacy geophysical data (AZU-T. Durn)

  • Legacy bathymetric data (O. Hasan)

  • Legacy data LoLADRIA project & Poseidon 514 cruise

  • Multibeam surveys (O. Hasan/D. Brunović/Miko)

  • Subbottom profiling & sidescan surveys (G. Papatheodorou)

  • Coring (piston, gravity and grab)

Analysis of sediment cores

    • Magnetic susceptibility (several sensors)

    • Micro-XRF (μXRF) core scanning

    • Element concentrations using ICP-OES/MS

    • Mineralogy X-ray diffraction & SEM

    • Mineralogy-heavy minerals

    • Microtephra-SEM, LA ICP-MS & Microprobe

    • Grain-size distribution-laser diffraction

    • Carbon, nitrogen, analysis (TOC/TN/TIC)

    • Isotopic composition of organic matter (∂13C and ∂15N)

    • Isotopic composition of carbonates (∂18O and ∂13C)

Proxies & chronologies

  • Palynological analyses (Bakarač, Mitić, Hruševar, PhD student A)

    (pollen, dinoflagellate cysts, plant macrofossils, non-pollen palynomorphs)

  • Foraminifera (Schulz, Brunović)

  • Ostracods (Hajek Tadesse)

  • Environmental aDNA analysis (Prohaska, Willerslev, PhD student A ?)

  • Radiocarbon dating (commercial lab)

  • Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating (commercial lab)

  • Tephrostratigraphy-SEM, LA ICP-MS & Microprobe (Razum)

  • Radionuclides (modern sedimentation rates 137Cs) (Petrinec)