Rachid Adallal (OT-Med PhD student)
Laurence Vidal (CEREGE)
The Mediterranean region is characterized by sharp topographic and climatic gradients leading to a high environmental diversity and a contrasting distribution of the water resource. The estimation of current and past climate impact on the environment and water vulnerability in North Africa is a major challenge that remains to be determined and specified. In this context, Morocco provides a climatic diversity which spatial and temporal variability results from the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Sahara influences. The Middle Atlas, regarded as the water tank of morocco contains several lakes functioning as the “rain gauges” that record the chronology of the climatic events in their sedimentary deposits. This zone represents a key area to determine the influence of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Saharan climate dynamics by studying lake sediments that record past and current climatic, hydrologic and environmental changes.
This project is based on the HYLAMM project (funded by the Federation Research ECCOREV) and focuses on the following objectives:
1- the characterization of the modern isotopic hydrological balance of lakes Azigza and Tiguelmamine through a monthly monitoring to determine seasonal and interannual variations in their water balance.
2- the study of the processes controlling the current sedimentation.
3- the establishment of a calibration of the isotopic proxy recorded by biological indicators for surface, sub-surface and last millena sediments.
4- the paleohydrologic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions recorded in lacustrine sedimentary archives.