*3.1. Location and Sampling Strategy of Core KIM-2A*

A gravity core (KIM-2A; 200 cm length) was recovered with R/V Aegaeo in May 2015 from the south Aegean Sea and covers the Late Quaternary (the last ∼21 ka BP). Core KIM-2A was collected from the Cyclades plateau, from a submarine depression (640 m water depth) located north of Kimolos Island (36◦95.464′N, 24◦06.354′E), as shown in Figure 1b. After splitting, the half core was stored as archival material, whereas the working half has been sampled for multiple analyses (micropaleontology, sedimentology, and geochemistry).

Fifty-eight samples were taken and used for paleontological (planktonic foraminifera and pteropods) and geochemical (Total Organic Carbon; TOC, stable oxygen and carbon isotopes; δ <sup>18</sup>O, δ <sup>13</sup>C) analyses between 196 cm and 4 cm. Samples were taken throughout the core but with different sampling resolutions. For the first gray interval corresponding to S1a, the sampling resolution was 1 cm; beyond these intervals the sampling was 2 cm, whereas the top 40 cm were sampled at a mean 8 cm resolution.
