Ana Moreno

Ana Moreno
Spanish National Research Council | CSIC · Department of Geoenvironmental Processes

Ph.D.

About

271
Publications
90,117
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9,279
Citations
Additional affiliations
June 2006 - February 2008
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Position
  • PostDoc Position
January 2003 - present
Spanish National Research Council
Position
  • Researcher
January 1998 - February 2003
University of Barcelona
Position
  • PhD Student

Publications

Publications (271)
Book
The Anthropocene represents a phase in the geological timescale during which humans have become a transformative force on a planetary scale. This is already discernible in sedimentary archives that show distinctive changes in sedimentological, geochemical, or biological properties. In terrestrial environments, lacustrine and cave sediment sequences...
Preprint
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The full understanding of climate feedbacks responsible for the amplification of deglaciations requires robust chronologies for these climate transitions, but, in the case of marine records, radiocarbon chronologies are possible only for the last glacial termination. Although the assumed relationships between the marine isotopic record and the orbi...
Article
Full-text available
Changes in rainfall patterns are a direct consequence of the current climate change. Climate projections indicate an intensification of extreme rainfall events, which will directly affect social, ecological, and economic systems. One of the greatest challenges of climate science is to understand, model, and predict the variability of floods. The un...
Article
Full-text available
Reconstructing of past hydroclimates at regional scales during the Common Era (CE) is necessary to place the current warming in the context of natural climate variability. Here we present a composite record of oxygen isotope variations during last 2500 years based on eight stalagmites from four caves in the central Pyrenees (NE Spain) dominated by...
Article
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During the Roman domain of the Iberian Peninsula (from 201 BCE to 460 CE) water management infrastructures were built to satisfy high water demand. However, whether the Roman activities affected the hydrological balance of Iberian wetlands remains unclear. Here, we investigate the paleo-hydrology of Lake Zóñar (southern Iberia) by using the stable...
Article
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This study focuses on characterizing a discontinuity within the Seán stalagmite (4.75–7.75 cm) by means of two nondestructive techniques: (1) high-resolution micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and (2) X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning (XRFCS). Micro-CT was used to study the stalagmite density, and XRFCS was applied to obtain the qualitative...
Preprint
Full-text available
Reconstructing of past temperatures at regional scales during the Common Era is necessary to place the current warming in the context of natural climate variability. Here we present a composite record of oxygen isotope variations during last 2500 years based on eight stalagmites from four caves in the central Pyrenees (NE Spain) dominated by temper...
Article
Full-text available
Recent hydroclimate studies on the Iberian Peninsula have shown a complex regional pattern in timing and intensity of climate change spanning the Younger Dryas and the Holocene. These changes are due to multifaceted interactions between climate variability that characterizes the Atlantic Ocean region and hydroclimatic processes associated with the...
Article
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Ice caves are one of the least studied parts of the cryosphere, particularly those located in inaccessible permafrost areas at high altitudes or high latitudes. We characterize the climate dynamics and the geomorphological features of Devaux cave, an outstanding ice cave in the Central Pyrenees on the French–Spanish border. Two distinct cave sector...
Preprint
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The Aneto Glacier, although it may be considered very small (<0.5 km2), is the largest glacier in the Pyrenees. Its shrinkage and wastage have been continuous in recent decades, and there are signs of accelerated melting in recent years. In this study, changes in the area and volume of the Aneto Glacier from 1981 to 2022 are investigated using hist...
Article
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Over the last years, perennial ice deposits located within caves have awakened interest as places to study microbial communities since they represent unique cryospheric archives of climate change. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the temperature has gradually increased, and it is estimated that by the end of this century the increase i...
Chapter
Full-text available
During a flood inside a cave, sands and silts are transported through the cave system and deposited as (i) a coating of this detritus on speleothem surfaces and (ii) a flood bed accumulated on the cave passages which are protected from the main water stream. After the floodwater level drops, speleothem deposition is restarted and detrital coatings...
Chapter
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Show caves are great natural attractions and constitute important economic engines for particular rural areas. However, cave management requires knowledge of the cave dynamics to ensure adequate exploitation and conservation (e.g. number of visitors, amount of CO2, other impacts). Show caves located close to the hydrological base level can be affec...
Article
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Preliminary investigations of cave sediments from Ubriga cave, Spain, to reconstruct paleoflood events.
Article
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En este trabajo se presenta el reto que muchas veces supone conseguir un buen modelo de edad independiente en una secuencia paleoambiental. Esta aproximación pasa por la necesidad de combinar diferentes metodologías de datación, con la complejidad que esto implica. Se han seleccionado dos ejemplos de dos archivos paleoambientales muy distintos, y c...
Preprint
Full-text available
Ice caves are one of the least studied parts of the cryosphere, particularly those located in inaccessible permafrost areas at high altitudes or high latitudes. We characterize the climate dynamics and the geomorphological features of Devaux cave, an outstanding ice cave in the Central Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border. Two distinct cave sector...
Article
Full-text available
The rate and consequences of future high latitude ice sheet retreat remain a major concern given ongoing anthropogenic warming. Here, new precisely dated stalagmite data from NW Iberia provide the first direct, high-resolution records of periods of rapid melting of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the penultimate deglaciation. These records re...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Centimeter-thick layers of gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) were deposited at the bottom of Laguna de Zoñar (Córdoba Province, southern Spain) from ~2120 to ~1900 cal yr BP [1], coinciding with the apogee of the Roman Empire in the Iberian Peninsula. The presence of gypsum deposits in lake sediments is generally interpreted as evidence of dry climatic periods i...
Poster
During the Quaternary glacial and interglacial periods, mountain glaciers have advanced and retreated following climate fluctuations. Nowadays, humans have the ability to influence the climate system, a phenomenon that has led to an increase in the average temperature in the last few decades. Glaciers are one of the key indicators of global climate...
Article
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Speleothems and detrital deposits in caves are excellent archives of past flood events but are still poorly exploited. In this study we evaluate, the potential of the Ojo de Valjunquera cave (Zaragoza, NE Spain) for the study of past floods based on geomorphological, topographical, hydrological, and chronological data. The cave comprises two subhor...
Article
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Glaciers and their microbiomes are exceptional witnesses of the environmental conditions from remote times. Climate change is threatening mountain glaciers, and especially those found in southern Europe, such as the Monte Perdido Glacier (northern Spain, Central Pyrenees). This study focuses on the reconstruction of the history of microbial communi...
Article
In Alpine regions, speleothem development on karst systems largely occurs during warm interglacial or interstadial phases due to their limited growth during cold stages. Still, recent attention has been given to the role of clastic sediments in caves, less dependent on temperature conditions. Yet, only a small number of caves worldwide preserve bot...
Article
This study presents the first high-resolution speleothem-based hydrological reconstruction for much of the last 2.7 kyr in the central-western Mediterranean. The paleohydrological information comes from a combination of five U-Th dated stalagmites from two Mallorca island caves. Interpretations are based on high-resolution records of δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C and...
Article
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Because they can archive a variety of geochemical proxies and be precisely and accurately dated with the U-Th decay series chronometer, stalagmites are widely used for paleoclimate reconstructions. However, limitations in the use of this chronometer arise because U-Th dating is analytically time consuming, expensive, and requires a relatively large...
Article
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Pyrenean glaciers are the largest in southern Europe. Their survival is threatened by climate change, highlighting the significance of their study. This research presents an assessment of changes in the glacierized area and thickness of Pyrenean glaciers from 2011 to 2020, using high-resolution optical satellite, airborne lidar and UAV images. The...
Article
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For the first time, this article presents a large dataset of precipitation isotopic measurements (δ18Op and δ2Hp) sampled every day or 2 d from seven sites on a west-to-east transect across northern Spain for 2010–2017. The main aim of this study is to (1) characterize the rainfall isotopic variability in northern Spain at daily and monthly timesca...
Article
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Studies of rainfall isotopic composition in the Iberian Peninsula are scarce, and to date, none of them have provided analyses of the triple oxygen isotopes, preventing from the complete understanding of current atmospheric processes in this region. We investigate the rainwater δ¹⁷O, δ¹⁸O, and δD and derived parameters ¹⁷O-excess and d-excess in a...
Article
Major disruptions in the North Atlantic circulation during the last deglaciation triggered a series of climate feedbacks that influenced the course of Termination I, suggesting an almost synchronous response in the ocean-atmosphere system. We present a replicated δ18O stalagmite record from Ostolo cave in the northern Iberian Peninsula with a robus...
Article
Full-text available
Mountain glaciers have generally experienced an accelerated retreat over the last 3 decades as a rapid response to current global warming. However, the response to previous warm periods in the Holocene is not well-described for glaciers of the southern Europe mountain ranges, such as the Pyrenees. The situation during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (...
Article
This study examines the first precisely dated and temporally highly resolved speleothem record from Iberia that reconstructs the Oldest Dryas (OD). The onset of cold conditions in the study area, contemporary with the beginning of Heinrich Stadial 1, is recorded at 18.13 ± 0.08 ka, with a pronounced drop of 6.1‰ in δ ¹³ C in 250 years. Henceforth,...
Chapter
The term speleothem refers to carbonate deposits in caves: mainly stalactites, stalagmites and stalagmite floors.
Chapter
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La presencia inicial de los humanos en la alta montaña desde hace poco menos de 8000 años presenta más ele-mentos de domesticación de lo que inicialmente se había estimado. raciones arqueológicas es todavía limitada, hay evidencias de uso de ganado doméstico y, en algunos casos, una probable agricultura utilizando mezcla de cereales a cotas interme...
Article
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Significance The Younger Dryas (YD) was an ∼1,300-y period of extreme climate that dramatically reversed the course of global warming that brought the last Ice Age to a close. Understanding what mechanisms triggered and terminated this event remains enigmatic, but it is fundamental for gaining insights into the inner workings of Earth’s climate sys...
Preprint
Full-text available
This article presents for the first time a large dataset of rainfall isotopic measurements (d18Op and d2Hp) sampled every day or every two days from seven sites in a west-to-east transect across northern Spain for 2010–2017. The main aim of this study is to: (1) characterize rainfall isotopic variability in northern Spain at daily and monthly time...
Article
Full-text available
Few continental palaeoenvironmental sedimentary sequences from Southern Europe are long enough to span the last interglacial period (Marine Isotopic Stage-MIS 5), the last glacial cycle (MIS 4 to 2) and the Holocene. El Cañizar de Villarquemado (North-Eastern Iberian Peninsula) is an exceptional sedimentary lacustrine sequence spanning the last ca....
Article
We have analyzed potential harmful trace elements (PHTE; Pb, Hg, Zn, As and Cu) on sediment cores retrieved from lake Marboré (LM) (2612 m a.s.l, 42°41′N; 0° 2′E). PHTE variability allowed us to reconstruct the timing and magnitude of trace metal pollutants fluxes over the last 3000 years in the Central Pyrenees. A statistical treatment of the data...
Article
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Late Quaternary volcanic basins are active landscapes from which detailed archives of past climate and seismic and volcanic activity can be obtained. A multidisciplinary study performed on a transect of sediment cores was used to reconstruct the depositional evolution of the high-elevation Laguna del Maule (LdM) (36∘ S, 2180 m a.s.l., Chilean Andes...
Preprint
Full-text available
Mountain glaciers have generally experienced an accelerated retreat over the last three decades as a rapid response to current global warming. However, the response to previous warm periods in the Holocene is not well-described for glaciers of the of southern Europe mountain ranges, such as the Pyrenees. The situation during the Medieval Climate An...
Preprint
Full-text available
Abstract. Late Quaternary volcanic basins are active landscapes from which detailed archives of past climate, seismic and volcanic activity can be obtained. A multidisciplinary study performed on a transect of sediment cores was used to reconstruct the depositional evolution of the high-elevation Laguna del Maule (LdM) (36° S, 2180 m asl, Chilean A...
Article
Full-text available
This study explores the climatic variability in the Iberian Peninsula (IP) and its surrounding seas from 140 to 65 kyr BP. Marine sediment cores and cave speleothems are used to reconstruct changes in sea surface water conditions, deep sea current intensities and atmospheric moisture availability based on stable isotopes, trace elements, grain size...
Article
This work presents the paleoenvironmental reconstructions from three mountaineous lakes located in northern Iberia. The results from the three lakes are compared and completed with classical magnetic analyses in order to detect the influence of different processes on the record and preservation of magnetic properties. The lakes are located in the C...
Poster
A large geochemestry were analyzed in a stalagmite from Ardales Cave (SW-Spain) to assess paleoclimate. The stalagmite was actively growing in 2007 upon collection and U-Th dates suggest that began forming 1000 years ago. Large variations in Mg/Ca ratios occur on both seasonal and multidecadal timescales. We infer that in dry periods there would be...
Article
Full-text available
Although quantitative isotope data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercom...
Poster
Full-text available
The last deglaciation (from ≈19 kyr BP to the beginning of the Holocene) is a time interval in which all components of the climate system underwent large-scale changes associated with global warming that led to the end of the last glacial period (Dansgaard et al. ., 1993). Although it is well known that this trend was marked by several heating and...
Poster
Full-text available
This study explores the use of stalagmites to record extreme coastal conditions with the aim for a better understanding of these events and their periodicity. This work applies a multi-proxy study on a speleothem from a coastal cave developed in schists under a Miocene marine terrace in Central Chile, a very unusual context. An innovative approach...
Article
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The oxygen isotope composition of speleothems is a widely used proxy for past climate change. Robust use of this proxy depends on understanding the relationship between precipitation and cave drip water δ18O. Here, we present the first global analysis, based on data from 163 drip sites, from 39 caves on five continents, showing that drip water δ18O...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Chronology of tufa deposits in the Val river (Iberian Range, Soria Province): Fluvial tufa build-ups located in the Val river (Ágreda, Soria province) have been investigated. Important tufa terraces crop out from Val spring to 8 km downstream along the river. U/Th ages derived from post-depositional speleothems corroborate previous radiocarbon ages...
Article
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We provide first insights into the speleogenesis of Ejulve cave (Teruel province, Iberian Range, NE Spain) by studying cave morphologies and cave deposits, combined with regional geomorphological and hydrothermal observations. Three main hydrogeomorphic evolutionary stages can be distinguised to explain the origin and evolution of the Ejulve endoka...
Article
We present a multidisciplinary dating approach - including radiocarbon, Uranium/Thorium series (U/Th), paleomagnetism, single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), polymineral fine-grain infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) and tephrochronology - used for the development of an age model for the Cañizar de Villarquemado sequence (VIL) fo...
Article
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This work combines very detailed measurements from terrestrial laser scanner (TLS), ground-based interferometry radar (GB-SAR) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to diagnose current conditions and to analyse the recent evolution of the Monte Perdido Glacier in the Spanish Pyrenees from 2011 to 2017. Thus, this is currently one of the best monitored...
Chapter
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La humanidad ha transformado nuestro planeta durante milenios a través de cambios en el paisaje y en los ciclos biogeoquímicos debidos al uso de recursos naturales y a actividades como la agricultura, ganadería y la minería que pueden causar impactos como contaminación de aguas y suelos y deforestación, entre otros. La magnitud y extensión de estos...
Chapter
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Los ecosistemas litorales se encuentran en un delicado equilibrio entre la influencia marina y terrestre, albergan una alta biodiversidad y ejercen un importante control sobre los ciclos y flujos biogeoquímicos entre los continentes y los océanos. Las proyecciones de cambio climático para los próximos 100 años señalan a estos ambientes como altamen...
Article
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This study was conducted in Ejulve cave (Spain, southwestern Europe) over a period of four years (2013–2016) to identify the factors affecting the isotopic composition of rainfall, dripwaters, and farmed calcite. The results indicate that δ¹⁸O of rainfall in the study area was mainly controlled by the temperature effect (r² = 0.82, p-value < 0.001)...
Article
The study of three lacustrine sedimentary archives along an altitudinal transect in the Southern Central Pyrenees - lakes Estanya, Basa and Marboré- has provided a unique record of changes in anthropogenic trace metal concentrations over the last six centuries in NE Iberian Peninsula. Although site-specific processes influence metals enrichments in...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents a new Holocene palaeoecological record from coastal south-eastern Spain, a region characterised by high plant species diversity, varied physiography, high risk of desertification, and a history of human pressure on the landscape that stretches to antiquity. The pollen sequence shows four main vegetation phases: the first charact...
Article
Full-text available
Sedimentological, geochemical and magnetic data in a ~ 7-m sequence from Marboré Lake (2612 m asl, central Pyrenees) provide information about environmental variability since the last glacier retreat (14.6 cal ka BP) in high-altitude Pyrenean environments. The sediment sequence is composed of millimeter- to centimeter-thick rhythmites made of finer...
Article
Perennial ice deposits in caves represent unique, but underexplored, terrestrial sequences that potentially contain outstanding palaeoclimatic records. Here, we present a pioneer palaeoenvironmental study of an ice deposit preserved in a small sag-type cave (A294) in the Central Pyrenees (northern Iberian Peninsula). The 9.25-m-thick sequence, whic...
Article
Abstract Comparison of selected, well-dated, lacustrine, speleothem and terrestrial pollen records spanning the Holocene onset and the Early Holocene (ca. 11.7–8 cal kyrs BP) in the Iberian Peninsula shows large hydrological fluctuations and landscape changes with a complex regional pattern in timing and intensity. Marine pollen records from Albora...