Environmental changes in Lebanon during the Holocene: Man vs. climate impacts

Hajar, Lara; Haïdar-Boustani, M.; Khater, Carla; Cheddadi, Rachid

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2008.11.002

Cited by 38 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This early Holocene wetting was shown at other sites from Lebanon (see site location in Fig. 1) by changes in growth rate, δ 18 O and δ 13 C in a 12 ka speleothem from Jeita Cave (Verheyden et al, 2008), and by the ∼15 ka-pollen records from the Aammish marsh in the Bakka Plain (Hajar et al, 2008(Hajar et al, , 2010. Pollen data from the Ghab Valley, Syria (Yasuda et al, 2000) show similar trends.…”

Section: Major Environmental Changes Through Timesupporting

confidence: 61%

Hydrological variability in the Northern Levant: a 250 ka multi-proxy record from the Yammoûneh (Lebanon) sedimentary sequence

et al. 2011

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Abstract. The Levant is a key region in terms of both long-term hydroclimate dynamics and human cultural evolution. Our understanding of the regional response to glacialinterglacial boundary conditions is limited by uncertainties in proxy-data interpretation and the lack of long-term records from different geographical settings.The present paper provides a 250 ka paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on a multi-proxy approach from northern Levant, derived from a 36 m lacustrine-palustrine sequence cored in the small intra-mountainous karstic Yammoûneh basin from northern Lebanon. We combined time series of sediment properties, paleovegetation, and carbonate oxygen isotopes (δ c ), to yield a comprehensive view of paleohydrologic-paleoclimatic fluctuations in the basin over the two last glacial-interglacial cycles. Integration of all available proxies shows that Interglacial maxima (early-mid MIS 7, MIS 5.5 and early MIS 1) experienced relatively high effective moisture, evidenced by the dominance of forested landscapes (although with different forest types) associated with authigenic carbonate sedimentation in a productive waterbody. Synchronous and steep δ c increases can be reconciled with enhanced mean annual moisture when changes in seasonality are taken into account. During Glacials periods (MIS 2 and MIS 6), open vegetation tends to replace the forests, favouring local erosion and detrital sedimentation.

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Section: Major Environmental Changes Through Timesupporting

confidence: 61%

Hydrological variability in the Northern Levant: a 250 ka multi-proxy record from the Yammoûneh (Lebanon) sedimentary sequence

et al. 2011

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“…This region is considered a hotspot of biodiversity (Médail and Quézel, 1999) as well as a climate change "hotspot" (Giorgi and Lionello, 2008). Recent research has highlighted possible anthropogenic influences along with the, often hard to separate, climatic signal through palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, such as to the west (Carrión et al, 2007;Estiarte et al, 2008;López Sáez et al, 2002;Pantaléon-Cano et al, 2003), centrally (Bellini et al, 2009;Calò et al, 2012;Combourieu Nebout et al, 2013;Di Rita and Magri, 2012;Noti et al, 2009;Sadori et al, 2013b;Tinner et al, 2009), as well as in eastern areas (Bottema and Sarpaki, 2003;Finkelstein and Langgut, 2014;Hajar et al, 2010;Jahns, 2005;Kaniewski et al, 2014;van Zeist et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

7300 years of vegetation history and climate for NW Malta: a Holocene perspective

et al. 2016

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Abstract. This paper investigates the Holocene vegetation dynamics for Burmarrad in Northwest Malta and provides a pollen-based quantitative palaeoclimatic reconstruction for this centrally located Mediterranean archipelago. The pollen record from this site provides new insight into the vegetation changes from 7280 to 1730 cal BP which correspond well with other regional records. The climate reconstruction for the area also provides strong correlation with southern (below 40 • N) Mediterranean sites. Our interpretation suggests an initially open landscape during the early Neolithic, surrounding a large palaeobay, developing into a dense Pistacia scrubland ca. 6700 cal BP. From about 4450 cal BP the landscape once again becomes open, coinciding with the start of the Bronze Age on the archipelago. This period is concurrent with increased climatic instability (between 4500 and 3700 cal BP) which is followed by a gradual decrease in summer moisture availability in the late Holocene. During the early Roman occupation period (1972-1730 cal BP) the landscape remains generally open with a moderate increase in Olea. This increase corresponds to archaeological evidence for olive oil production in the area, along with increases in cultivated crop taxa and associated ruderal species, as well as a rise in fire events. The Maltese archipelago provides important insight into vegetation, human impacts, and climatic changes in an island context during the Holocene.

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“…With further exploration of the research on global changes, more and more groups have been focused on the study on environmental change in the development of human civilization by the scientific community (Polyak et al, 2001;Haug et al, 2003;Zhu et al, 2003;Mao et al, 2008;Alam et al, 2009;Hajar et al, 2009). Numerous studies confirmed that environmental change has great impact on the evolution of ancient culture (Hoelzmann et al, 2001;Gao et al, 2007;Li et al, 2008;Sampériz et al, 2008;Shi et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmutation of ancient settlements and environmental changes between 6000–2000 aBP in the Chaohu Lake Basin, East China

Wang

Zhou

et al. 2010

J. Geogr. Sci.

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Based on the temporal-spatial distribution features of ancient settlement sites from the middle and late Neolithic Age to the Han dynasty in the Chaohu Lake Basin of Anhui Province, East China, using the methods of GIS combined with the reconstructed paleoenvironment by the records of lake sediment since Holocene, the transmutation of ancient settlements with response to environmental changes in this area has been discussed. Studies show that the main feature of transmutation of ancient settlements from the middle and late Neolithic Age to the Han Dynasty was that the distribution of settlements in this area changed from high altitudes to low ones and kept approaching the Chaohu Lake with the passage of time. These could be the response to the climate change from warm-moist to a relatively warm-dry condition during the middle Holocene, leading to the lake level fluctuations. The large area of exposed land provided enough space for human activities. These indicate that the above changes in geomorphologic evolution and hydrology influenced by climate conditions affected the transmutation of ancient settlements greatly. The distribution pattern of settlement sites was that the number of sites in the west was more than in the east. This pattern may be related to the geomorphologic conditions such as frequent channel shifting of the Yangtze River as well as flood disasters during the Holocene optimum. Therefore, climate change was the inducement of the transmutation of ancient settlements in the Chaohu Lake Basin, which exerted great influence on the distribution, expansion and development of the ancient settlements.

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Environmental changes in Lebanon during the Holocene: Man vs. climate impacts

Cited by 38 publications

References 24 publications

Hydrological variability in the Northern Levant: a 250 ka multi-proxy record from the Yammoûneh (Lebanon) sedimentary sequence

Hydrological variability in the Northern Levant: a 250 ka multi-proxy record from the Yammoûneh (Lebanon) sedimentary sequence

7300 years of vegetation history and climate for NW Malta: a Holocene perspective

Transmutation of ancient settlements and environmental changes between 6000–2000 aBP in the Chaohu Lake Basin, East China

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