Holocene Climate Variability in Sicily from a Discontinuous Stalagmite Record and the Mesolithic to Neolithic Transition

Frisia, Silvia; Borsato, Andrea; Mangini, Augusto; Spötl, Christoph; Madonia, Giuliana; Sauro, Ugo

doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2006.05.003

Cited by 118 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Millennial-scale oscillations have the lowest 8 18 0 amplitude (0.2 0.50/00), whereas decadal oscillations have large amplitudes (1 20/00). Such amplitudes are similar to other records from Western Europe during late Holocene time (Lauritzen and Lundberg, 1999b;Linge et aI., 2001;McDermott et aI., 1999McDermott et aI., , 2001Niggemann et aI., 2003b;Frisia et al, 2006), but not in records from monsoonal Decay constant values adopted from Cheng et al (2000). The errors are always 2a errors.…”

Section: Composition Variability and Spectral Analysissupporting

confidence: 88%

Α high-resolution late Holocene speleothem record from Kaite Cave, northern Spain: δ18O variability and possible causes

Domínguez‐Villar

Wang

Cheng

et al. 2008

Quaternary International

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A high-resolution calcite oxygen stable isotopic (0 18 0) record, covering the past 4000 years, was obtained from Kaite Cave, northern Spain. The record has a mean 0 18 0 value of -6.25%0 VPDB and a range of 2%0. Spectral analysis of the 0 18 0 data shows significant periodicities of 2400-1900,600, 150,27, and 22 years. The amplitudes during these periods range from 0.2%0 to 2%0. Factors controlling the isotopic ratio in the speleothem were evaluated. The calcite is most likely precipitated under equilibrium conditions, with the cave calcite 0 18 0 interpreted as a proxy of oxygen isotopic composition in local rainwater. Other factors such as temperature or fractionation in the karst system prior to calcite precipitation are considered of negligible or of minor importance. Mechanisms affecting rainfall isotopic composition were also investigated on different time scales. Precipitation amount is the primary factor controlling the high frequency 0 18 0 oscillations. Other climate parameters, such as changes of storm tracks may have significant contributions on centennial and millennial time scales.

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Section: Composition Variability and Spectral Analysissupporting

confidence: 88%

Α high-resolution late Holocene speleothem record from Kaite Cave, northern Spain: δ18O variability and possible causes

Domínguez‐Villar

Wang

Cheng

et al. 2008

Quaternary International

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“…Pollen records of the region corroborate this interpretation (Rossignol-Strick, 1999). While winter/ spring rain over the central and eastern Mediterranean decreased across the mid-Holocene (Bar-Matthews et al, 1997;, Frisia et al, 2006, and probably around the Aegean Sea (Rohling et al, 2002), it increased over Iran , Griffiths et al, 2001Stevens et al, 2006;Wasylikowa et al, 2006). Over northern parts of South Asia, the early and midHolocene appears to have been wetter than the late Holocene and the present day (Swain et al, 1983;Enzel et al, 1999;Bush, 2004, Staubwasser, 2006Prasad and Enzel, 2006).…”

Section: Winter and Spring Rain During The Holocenementioning

confidence: 84%

Holocene Climate and Cultural Evolution in Late Prehistoric–Early Historic West Asia

2006

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The precipitation climatology and the underlying climate mechanisms of the eastern Mediterranean, West Asia, and the Indian subcontinent are reviewed, with emphasis on upper and middle tropospheric flow in the subtropics and its steering of precipitation. Holocene climate change of the region is summarized from proxy records. The Indian monsoon weakened during the Holocene over its northernmost region, the Ganges and Indus catchments and the western Arabian Sea. Southern regions, the Indian Peninsula, do not show a reduction, but an increase of summer monsoon rain across the Holocene. The long-term trend towards drier conditions in the eastern Mediterranean can be linked to a regionally complex monsoon evolution. Abrupt climate change events, such as the widespread droughts around 8200, 5200 and 4200 cal yr BP, are suggested to be the result of altered subtropical upper-level flow over the eastern Mediterranean and Asia.The abrupt climate change events of the Holocene radically altered precipitation, fundamental for cereal agriculture, across the expanse of late prehistoric-early historic cultures known from the archaeological record in these regions. Social adaptations to reduced agro-production, in both dry-farming and irrigation agriculture regions, are visible in the archaeological record during each abrupt climate change event in West Asia. Chronological refinement, in both the paleoclimate and archaeological records, and transfer functions for both precipitation and agro-production are needed to understand precisely the evident causal linkages.

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“…8500 and 7500 cal yr BP (Carburangeli Cave speleothems: Frisia et al, 2006;land snail shells, Favignana Island: Colonese et al, 2011). Colonese et al (2011) take the thermal limits controlling periods of snail activity into account to suggest that the increased precipitation at this time may not have been an exclusive winter phenomenon but may have extended into spring and autumn.…”

Section: Precipitation Seasonality Proxy Sensitivity and Climate Recmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Lake Pergusa pollen record (southern Italy, Sicily) shows the opposite pattern: maximum winter and summer precipitation during the early to mid-Holocene and a very moderate drying trend towards modern climatic conditions during the late Holocene (Magny et al, 2012b). The Sicilian record is supported by isotopic evidence from snail shells (Colonese et al, 2011), lacustrine records (Zanchetta et al, 2007a;Sadori et al, 2008) and stalagmites (Frisia et al, 2006). The Sicilian record also shows similarities to records from the eastern Mediterranean (Bar-Matthews and Ayalon, 2011;Bar-Matthews et al, 1998;Kouli et al, 2012) and the western Mediterranean (Pérez-Obiol and Sadori, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

Contrasting patterns of climatic changes during the Holocene across the Italian Peninsula reconstructed from pollen data

et al. 2013

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Lake-level records from Italy suggest that patterns of precipitation in the central Mediterranean during the Holocene were divided between the north and south, but a scarcity of reliable palaeoclimatic records in the north and central-southern Mediterranean means new evidence is needed to validate this hypothesis. We provide robust quantitative estimates of Holocene climate in the Mediterranean region using four high-resolution pollen records from northern (Lakes Ledro and Accesa) and southern (Lakes Trifoglietti and Pergusa) Italy. Multiple methods are used to provide an improved assessment of the palaeoclimatic reconstruction uncertainty. The multi-method approach uses the pollenbased weighted averaging, weighted-average partial leastsquares regression, modern analogue technique, and the nonmetric multidimensional scaling/generalized additive model methods. We use independent lake-level data to validate the precipitation reconstructions. Our results support a climatic partition between northern and southern Italy during the Holocene, confirming the hypothesis of opposing mid-Holocene summer precipitation regimes in the Mediterranean. The northern sites (Ledro, Accesa) are characterized by minima for summer precipitation and lake levels during the early to midHolocene, while the southern sites (Trifoglietti, Pergusa) are marked by maxima for precipitation and lake levels at the same time. Both pollen-inferred precipitation and lake levels indicate the opposite pattern during the late Holocene, a maximum in northern Italy and a minimum in southern Italy/Sicily. Summer temperatures show the same partitioning, with warm conditions in northern Italy and cool conditions in Sicily during the early/mid-Holocene, and a reversal during the late Holocene. Comparison with marine cores from the Aegean Sea suggests that climate trends and gradients observed in Italy show strong similarities with those recognized from the Aegean Sea, and more generally speaking in the eastern Mediterranean

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Holocene Climate Variability in Sicily from a Discontinuous Stalagmite Record and the Mesolithic to Neolithic Transition

Cited by 118 publications

References 47 publications

Α high-resolution late Holocene speleothem record from Kaite Cave, northern Spain: δ18O variability and possible causes

Α high-resolution late Holocene speleothem record from Kaite Cave, northern Spain: δ18O variability and possible causes

Holocene Climate and Cultural Evolution in Late Prehistoric–Early Historic West Asia

Contrasting patterns of climatic changes during the Holocene across the Italian Peninsula reconstructed from pollen data

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