The impact of climate on sedimentary systems is studied from source to sink, using the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 Ma) in the South Pyrenean Foreland Basin (Spain) as an example.

We study how the entire sedimentary system responded to the PETM and how this response was propagated downsystem by (1) constraining the continuity of the system, (2) quantifying the sensitivity of surface processes to changes in the hydroclimate, (3) investigating the role played by climate variability in the observed responses, (4) analyzing how the response signal propagates throughout the system, and (5) quantify how efficiently is the signal propagated in term of intensity of the response and the distance over which it propagates.

This work provides an example of how surface processes can adjust to global warming and is highly informative for future changes.