Environmental Drivers of Holocene Forest Development in the Middle Atlas, Morocco

In semi-arid regions subject to rising temperatures and drought, palaeoecological insights into past vegetation dynamics under a range of boundary conditions are needed to develop our understanding of environmental responses to climatic changes. Here, we present a new high-resolution record of vegetation history and fire activity spanning the last 12,000 years from Lake Sidi Ali in the southern Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco. The record is underpinned by a robust AMS radiocarbon and 210Pb/137Cs chronology and multi-proxy approach allowing direct comparison of vegetation, hydroclimate, and catchment tracers. The record reveals the persistence of steppic landscapes until 10,340 cal yr BP, prevailing sclerophyll woodland with evergreen Quercus until 6,300 cal yr BP, predominance of montane conifers (Cedrus and Cupressaceae) until 1,300 cal yr BP with matorralization and increased fire activity from 4,320 cal yr BP, and major reduction of forest cover after 1,300 cal yr BP. Detailed comparisons between the pollen record of Lake Sidi Ali (2,080m a.s.l.) and previously published data from nearby Tigalmamine (1,626m a.s.l.) highlight common patterns of vegetation change in response to Holocene climatic and anthropogenic drivers, as well as local differences relating to elevation and bioclimate contrasts between the sites. Variability in evergreen Quercus and Cedrus at both sites supports a Holocene summer temperature maximum between 9,000 and 7,000 cal yr BP in contrast with previous large-scale pollen-based climate reconstructions, and furthermore indicates pervasive millennial temperature variability. Millennial-scale cooling episodes are inferred from Cedrus expansion around 10,200, 8,200, 6,100, 4,500, 3,000, and 1,700 cal yr BP, and during the Little Ice Age (400 cal yr BP). A two-part trajectory of Late Holocene forest decline is evident, with gradual decline from 4,320 cal yr BP linked to synergism between pastoralism, increased fire and low winter rainfall, and a marked reduction from 1,300 cal yr BP, attributed to intensification of human activity around the Early Muslim conquest of Morocco. This trajectory, however, does not mask vegetation responses to millennial climate variability. The findings reveal the sensitive response ofMiddle Atlas forests to rapid climate changes and underscore the exposure of the montane forest ecosystems to future warming

Climate and vegetation changes during the Lateglacial and early-middle Holocene at Lake Ledro (southern Alps, Italy)

International audienceAdding to the on-going debate regarding vegetation recolonisation (more particularly the timing) in Europe and climate change since the Lateglacial, this study investigates a long sediment core (LL081) from Lake Ledro (652ma.s.l., southern Alps, Italy). Environmental changes were reconstructed using multiproxy analysis (pollen-based vegetation and climate reconstruction, lake levels, magnetic susceptibility and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements) recorded climate and land-use changes during the Lateglacial and early-middle Holocene. The well-dated and high-resolution pollen record of Lake Ledro is compared with vegetation records from the southern and northern Alps to trace the history of tree species distribution. An altitudedependent progressive time delay of the first continuous occurrence of Abies (fir) and of the Larix (larch) development has been observed since the Lateglacial in the southern Alps. This pattern suggests that the mid-altitude Lake Ledro area was not a refuge and that trees originated from lowlands or hilly areas (e.g. Euganean Hills) in northern Italy. Preboreal oscillations (ca. 11 000 cal BP), Boreal oscillations (ca. 10 200, 9300 cal BP) and the 8.2 kyr cold event suggest a centennial-scale climate forcing in the studied area. Picea (spruce) expansion occurred preferentially around 10 200 and 8200 cal BP in the south-eastern Alps, and therefore reflects the long-lasting cumulative effects of successive boreal and the 8.2 kyr cold event. The extension of Abies is contemporaneous with the 8.2 kyr event, but its development in the southern Alps benefits from the wettest interval 8200-7300 cal BP evidenced in high lake levels, flood activity and pollen-based climate reconstructions. Since ca. 7500 cal BP, a weak signal of pollen-based anthropogenic activities suggest weak human impact. The period between ca. 5700 and ca. 4100 cal BP is considered as a transition period to colder and wetter conditions (particularly during summers) that favoured a dense beech (Fagus) forest development which in return caused a distinctive yew (Taxus) decline.We conclude that climate was the dominant factor controlling vegetation changes and erosion processes during the early and middle Holocene (up to ca. 4100 cal BP)

Mediterranean winter rainfall in phase with African monsoons during the past 1.36 million years

Mediterranean climates are characterized by strong seasonal contrasts between dry summers and wet winters. Changes in winter rainfall are critical for regional socioeconomic development, but are difficult to simulate accurately1 and reconstruct on Quaternary timescales. This is partly because regional hydroclimate records that cover multiple glacial–interglacial cycles2,3 with different orbital geometries, global ice volume and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are scarce. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms of change and their persistence remain unexplored. Here we show that, over the past 1.36 million years, wet winters in the northcentral Mediterranean tend to occur with high contrasts in local, seasonal insolation and a vigorous African summer monsoon. Our proxy time series from Lake Ohrid on the Balkan Peninsula, together with a 784,000-year transient climate model hindcast, suggest that increased sea surface temperatures amplify local cyclone development and refuel North Atlantic low-pressure systems that enter the Mediterranean during phases of low continental ice volume and high concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases. A comparison with modern reanalysis data shows that current drivers of the amount of rainfall in the Mediterranean share some similarities to those that drive the reconstructed increases in precipitation. Our data cover multiple insolation maxima and are therefore an important benchmark for testing climate model performance

Holocene environment and human impact in the South Caucasus.

International audienc

Past variations of Lake Sevan (Armenia, lesser Caucasus): documenting climate triggers for the Near East and delivering insights for a sustainable management

International audience<p>To understand the long-term patterns of atmospheric circulation in Eurasia, current paleoclimatic reconstruction syntheses lack accurate data for the Near East. In this semi-arid zone, precipitation is the key factor to be studied that strongly controls ecosystems and human societies. Few data are available from Lake Sevan (1900.52 m above sea level, 1,279 km², 38.2 km<sup>3</sup> as of January 1, 2021), the largest fresh-water lake in the Near East, whose past level variations may document seasonal to millennial precipitation changes.</p><p>We present here the preliminary results of the interdisciplinary Sevan-up Project. Its ambition is to develop a high resolution lake level reconstruction (which is expected to be preserved from the influences of long ecological processes and from human activities) and other climatic proxies (from pollen and molecular biomarker) in view to quantify precipitation changes during the Holocene.</p><p>The Early Holocene climate characteristics (strong seasonality) and environment (prevalence of steppe ecosystems) may raise an analogous model of future conditions in the Near East which will be affected by enhanced continentalism. The study of littoral and deep sedimentary deposits will potentially reveal the consequences of past variations in lake levels on its hydrodynamic functioning and trophic status. These results will give crucial information on how to improve the lake's water management with the goal to reach a sustainable use and a better ecological state. Indeed, seasonal stratification onsets and trophic status dramatically changed since the man-made water-level fall during the Soviet times (40% of its volume).</p&gt

Changements climatiques en Méditerranée à la transition Pléistocène inférieur-moyen : pollens, isotopes stables et cyclostratigraphie

Pollen analysis has been performed on six sections (Santa Lucia, Montalbano Jonico, Site ODP 976; Tsampika and Shamb) placed along a 4,000 km long transect from the Western Mediterranean region to Little Caucasus. These sections recorded same vegetation changes related to climatic cycles occurred throughout the Mediterranean region during the Early-Middle Pleistocene (1.600-0.700 Ma), despite an observed longitudinal gradient. Mesothermic taxa were affected by the increasing aridity and the extremes related to climatic cycles during this considered time-window. “Long-term” vegetation successions were controlled by climatic cycles related to the obliquity forcing. A similar vegetation dynamics with short and longer-term durations were forced by precession and its modulator (the eccentricity), respectively. Influences of both parameters were superimposed. The expected shift from obliquity to 100 ka long-cycles related to eccentricity is not observed in the Mediterranean region during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.L'analyse pollinique a été appliquée à six coupes (Santa Lucia, Montalbano Jonico, Site ODP 976, Tsampika et Shamb) réparties sur un transect de 4.000 km de la région ouest-méditerranéenne au Petit Caucase. Elles ont enregistré des modifications identiques de la végétation sur toute la Méditerranée témoignant des cyclicités climatiques du Pléistocène inférieur-moyen (1,600-0,700 Ma), malgré l'existence d'un gradient longitudinal. Les taxons thermophiles ont subi un accroissement de l'aridité et des extrêmes climatiques plus prononcés dans cet intervalle. Les cycles climatiques forcés par l'obliquité se répercutent sous la forme de successions de végétation à long terme. La même dynamique de végétation existait à court et à plus long terme. Elle était forcée par la précession et son modulateur, l'excentricité. L'influence de ces paramètres se superpose, il n'y a pas de relais de l'obliquité par l'excentricité en Méditerranée durant la transition du Pléistocène inférieur-moyen

Vegetation changes during the late Early Pleistocene at Montalbano Jonico (Province of Matera, southern Italy) based on pollen analysis

International audiencePollen analysis of the Early Pleistocene Montalbano Jonico section in southern Italy reveals cyclic changes driven by climate and eustasy, as illustrated by mesothermic vs. steppe elements for climate, and Pinus vs. Caryophyllaceae, Amaranthaceae–Chenopodiaceae and Ephedra for eustasy. These results are directly compared with oxygen isotope data on Globigerina bulloides constrained within a biostratigraphic framework based on nannofossils and foraminifers, facilitating a new age calibration for the section. Marine isotopic stages 37 to 23 (1.250–0.900 Ma) are recorded, and compared with global and Mediterranean oxygen isotope curves. High-frequency changes in pollen are related to the Mediterranean curve (Globigerinoides ruber) from ODP Site 967, and superimposed the LR04 stack curve. During the Early Pleistocene, pollen recorded global and regional climate changes related to obliquity and precession, respectively, and regional tectonic evolution. Precession forcing was caused by Mediterranean wetness related to precession. The intensified precession effect over climatic cycles, that is expected during the Middle Pleistocene Transition, is not recorded in the Montalbano Jonico interval A vegetation changes

Signatures et impacts des changements climatiques rapides sur la travertinisation, la morphogenèse et les sociétés holocènes des régions circumcaspiennes

International audienc

Signatures et impacts des changements climatiques rapides sur la travertinisation, la morphogenèse et les sociétés holocènes des régions circumcaspiennes

International audienc

Signatures et impacts des changements climatiques rapides sur la travertinisation, la morphogenèse et les sociétés holocènes des régions circumcaspiennes

International audienc