Gea Guillén, Ginés AlfonsoCastro Jiménez, Jose ManuelCompany Sempere, MiguelO’Dogherty, LuisSandoval Gabarrón, JoséQuijano López, María LuisaSequero López, CristinaFroehner, SandroAguado Merlo, Roque2025-01-162025-01-162024-07-11de Gea, G. A., Castro, J. M., Company, M., O’Dogherty, L., Sandoval, J., Quijano, M. L., Sequero, C., Froehner, S., & Aguado, R. (2024). New Evidence for an Episode of Accelerated Environmental Change in the Late Barremian: Geochemical and Paleontological Records from the Subbetic Basin (Western Tethys). Geosciences, 14(7), 187. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences1407018710.3390/geosciences14070187https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/114815We investigate a new event of accelerated environmental change that was recorded during the late Barremian in the pelagic Subbetic Basin (Western Tethys). Two pelagic sections have been studied using a multi-proxy approach based on C-isotope stratigraphy and a high-resolution quantitative study of nannofossil assemblages, along with major and trace elements and biomarkers. Our results provide a detailed biostratigraphy and C-isotope stratigraphy, and outline the paleoenvironmental conditions recorded during the early stages of the Taxy Episode. A disturbance has been identified in the C-isotope record, called the IFeNE (Intra-Feradianus negative C-excursion), which is coeval with environmental and biotic changes that predate the well-known ISNE (Intra-Sarasini negative C-excursion). The combined analysis of nannofossil associations, C-isotopes, major and trace elements, and biomarker distributions indicates a separate episode of warming heralding the ISNE, resulting in the acceleration of the hydrological cycle and a consequent increase in continental inputs and the fertilization of surface waters. The origin of the Taxy Episode (the IFeNE and ISNE) has been related to orbital factors (high-eccentricity cycles), and to a global increase in volcanism, probably related to the early phases of the Ontong Java Plateau.engAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/journal article2076-3263https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences14070187https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/14/7/187open access551.763.1(460)PaleoenvironmentsEarly CretaceousCalcareous nannofossilsC-isotopesElementsBiomarkersTaxy EECGeoquímicaPaleontología2503.07 Geoquímica Orgánica2503.08 Isótopos Estables2503.09 Distribución de Elementos Traza2502.05 Paleoclimatología2416 Paleontología