Middle East coastal ecosystem response to middle-to-late Holocene abrupt climate changes - PubMed (original) (raw)

Middle East coastal ecosystem response to middle-to-late Holocene abrupt climate changes

D Kaniewski et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008.

Abstract

The Holocene vegetation history of the northern coastal Arabian Peninsula is of long-standing interest, as this Mediterranean/semiarid/arid region is known to be particularly sensitive to climatic changes. Detailed palynological data from an 800-cm alluvial sequence cored in the Jableh plain in northwest Syria have been used to reconstruct the vegetation dynamics in the coastal lowlands and the nearby Jabal an Nuşayriyah mountains for the period 2150 to 550 B.C. Corresponding with the 4.2 to 3.9 and 3.5 to 2.5 cal kyr BP abrupt climate changes (ACCs), two large-scale shifts to a more arid climate have been recorded. These two ACCs had different impacts on the vegetation assemblages in coastal Syria. The 3.5 to 2.5 cal kyr BP ACC is drier and lasted longer than the 4.2 to 3.9 cal kyr BP ACC, and is characterized by the development of a warm steppe pollen-derived biome (1100-800 B.C.) and a peak of hot desert pollen-derived biome at 900 B.C. The 4.2 to 3.9 cal kyr BP ACC is characterized by a xerophytic woods and shrubs pollen-derived biome ca. 2050 B.C. The impact of the 3.5 to 2.5 cal kyr BP ACC on human occupation and cultural development is important along the Syrian coast with the destruction of Ugarit and the collapse of the Ugarit kingdom at ca. 1190 to 1185 B.C.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

The northern Arabian Peninsula with the geographical location of Jableh, Tell Tweini-Gibala, and the Rumailiah alluvial plain with core TW-1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Tell Tweini: Core TW-1 linear age-scale pollen-derived biomes diagram with salinity/aridity (SI), input of freshwater (IoF) and increased water availability (Iwa) indices. δ18O data originate from the Soreq Cave (1) and from the Ashdod coast (14). The atmospheric δ14C curve (32) and North Atlantic Bond events (8) are plotted to match the Jableh plain pollen data with global climatic changes.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3.

Cross-correlograms: WAMX + XERO PdB-scores versus atmospheric δ14C (32) and WAST + HODE PdB-scores versus anthropogenic indicators. Vertical axes show correlation coefficients. Significance level P = 0.05.

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