Late Holocene local vegetation dynamics in the marsh of Gravgaz (southwest Turkey)

Late Holocene local vegetation succession is reconstructed in two different sites in a small-scale open marsh ecosystem in southwest Turkey. This is done by comparison of the fossil local pollen assemblage zones in two cores with the local pollen data of 40 surface samples from the marsh. The pollen data are supplemented with sedimentological and archaeological data. The insertion of the mean pollen data of the local pollen zones as passive samples into the canonical correspondence analysis triplot of the modern samples allows us to detect modern analogues for the fossil pollen zones. From this numerical comparative approach it is concluded that the marsh area was relatively dry until ca 2500 BP. After 2500 BP the area shifts towards a wet area dominated by Sparganium and/or Typha angustifolia. A diversification of the marsh vegetation starts at ca 2400/2300 BP. The area around one core site seems to have been situated in an area with slowly flowing source water, whereas the other core site is likely to have been characterised by damp conditions. The steadily increasing dryness of the marsh area starts after ca 680 BP. The drying up appears to be associated with recent agricultural and grazing pressure.status: publishe