The Mediterranean region and the Levant have returned some of the clearest evidence of a climatically dry period occurring around 4200 years ago. However, some regional evidence is controversial and contradictory, and issues remain regarding timing, progression, and regional articulation of this event. In this paper, we review the evidence from selected proxies (sea-surface temperature, precipitation, and temperature reconstructed from pollen, δ 18 O on speleothems, and δ 18 O on lacustrine carbonate) over the Mediterranean Basin to infer possible regional climate patterns during the interval between 4.3 and 3.8 ka. The values and limitations of these proxies are discussed, and their potential for furnishing information on seasonality is also ex-plored. Despite the chronological uncertainties, which are the main limitations for disentangling details of the climatic conditions, the data suggest that winter over the Mediterranean involved drier conditions, in addition to already dry summers. However, some exceptions to this prevail -where wetter conditions seem to have persisted -suggesting regional heterogeneity in climate patterns. Temperature data, even if sparse, also suggest a cooling anomaly, even if this is not uniform. The most common paradigm to interpret the precipitation regime in the Mediterranean -a North Atlantic Oscillation-like pattern -is not completely satisfactory to interpret the selected data.

Abstract. The Mediterranean region and the Levant have returned some of the clearest evidence of a climatically dry period occurring around 4200 years ago. However, some regional evidence are controversial and contradictory, and issues remain regarding timing, progression and regional articulation of this event. In this paper we review the evidence from selected proxies (sea-surface temperature, precipitation and temperature reconstructed from pollen, δ18O on speleothems, and δ18O on lacustrine carbonate) over the Mediterranean basin to infer possible regional climate patterns during the interval between 4.3 and 3.8 cal ka BP. The values and limitations of these proxies are discussed, and their potential for furnishing information on seasonality is also explored. Despite the chronological uncertainties, which are the main limitations for disentangling details of the climatic conditions, the data suggests that winter over the Mediterranean was drier condition, in addition to already dry summers. However, some exceptions to this prevail, – where wetter condition seems to have persisted – suggesting regional heterogeneity in climate patterns. Temperature data, even if sparse, also suggest a cooling anomaly, even if this is not uniform. The most common paradigm to interpret the precipitation regime in the Mediterranean – a North Atlantic Oscillation-like pattern – is not completely satisfactory to interpret the selected data.

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International audienceUnderstanding the role of climate and humans in generating mountain slope instability is crucial because such instability influences downstream fluvial activity and is a major threat to societies. Here, we use the sedimentary archive of Lake Allos (southeastern France), a mountain lake in the European Alps, to characterize mountain flood deposits and vegetation dynamics over the past 7000 yr. Our results support the interpretation of a critical threshold in catchment sensitivity to erosion at 1700 calibrated (cal.) yr B.P. (A.D. 250) probably resulting from long-term, uninterrupted impacts of human activity. The frequency and severity of floods increased dramatically after this date. These results demonstrate that underestimation of human impacts over the Holocene may pose a challenge to a clear understanding of past climate changes because paleoflood records are highly likely to have been affected by geomorphic thresholds. Natural reforestation since the end of the 19th century does not appear to be sufficient to induce a flood regime comparable to that which occurred prior to 1700 cal. yr B.P. This poses the question as to whether forest restoration in high-altitude environments is liable to foster a return to a low-erosion regime over the next decades, or whether the overall severity of soil degradation has been such as to preclude a return to previous conditions