A Multi-Proxy Approach to Reconstructing Long-Term Climate and Environmental Dynamics in the Canary Islands: Inter-Island Comparisons

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The Canary Islands, located in the central North Atlantic, provide an exceptional setting for investigating long-term climate dynamics within the Macaronesian region. This study presents sedimentary records from volcanic lacustrine basins across Tenerife, La Gomera and La Palma, analyzed using a multi-proxy approach including magnetic susceptibility, XRF geochemistry, elemental composition (TOC, TN, TS), mineralogy, lipid biomarkers, and updated age models. Preliminary age models suggest that the sequences of La Vega Lagunera (northern Tenerife) extend back up to 400,000 years, and El Malpaís de La Rasca (southern Tenerife), Garajonay (La Gomera), and Playa de Taburiente (La Palma) span the Holocene.Preliminary results from La Vega Lagunera, a Pleistocene clastic lake, indicate colder conditions during MIS 2 and MIS 4, warmer conditions during the Holocene, MIS 3, and MIS 5, and millennial-scale cycles during MIS 3 and MIS 4. Climate during the Last Glacial Maximum (MIS 2) was notably drier, resembling mid-latitude records. Holocene records from paleolacustrine deposits of two closed-drainage basins located in two volcanic craters (La Gomera and Malpaís de La Rasca) and the lacustrine-marsh system of Playa de Taburiente showed coherent patterns of Holocene regional climate variability, with increased fluvial and alluvial activity during the Greenlandian (11.7 to 8.2 ka), a decline during the Northgrippian (8.2 to 4.2 ka), and reduced clastic input during the Meghalayan (last ~4.2 ka). These trends suggest increasing aridity throughout the Holocene. These new sedimentary sequences from Tenerife, La Gomera, and La Palma provide further evidence of rapid climate dynamics during glacial and interglacial intervals. Improved age models (OSL, 14C) are still being developed to characterize the cyclic patterns better, while multi-proxy analyses are enhancing our understanding of past climate dynamics. Further research is needed to clarify the roles of regional climate and local factors.This work is supported by TED2021-129695A-I00 project funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR; PALEOMOL (2915/2022) and IVRIPARC (2779/2021), both funded by the Spanish National Parks Organism, and IMPACT (2022CLISA04, Fundación CajaCanarias and Fundación La Caixa).

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