Mid- to late-Holocene climate change in central Turkey: The Tecer Lake record

Abstract

The mineralogy and grain-size distribution of sediments from Tecer Lake in central Anatolia provides a 6000 year record of mid-to late-Holocene climate trends and events. Correspondences between key measured parameters allow a reconstruction of variations in lake level, evaporation intensity (summer droughts) and humidity (triggering erosion in winter and spring). They also indicate, occasionally, seasonal contrasts (e.g. phases with high winter rainfall). The Tecer sequence is divided into two main periods: (a) the mid-Holocene transition (from sixth to third millennia BP) characterised by the alternation of multicentenial wet and dry phases, and (b) shorter alternations during the last two millennia. During the mid-Holocene transition, intense droughts occur at the end of the sixth, fifth and fourth millennia BP. The characteristics of some climatic phases at Tecer seem specific to the location of the sequence which, when compared with other sites in the eastern Mediterranean, may record variations in the extent of different climatic systems (NE Atlantic, polar, east Mediterranean, Indian monsoon).

Spring temperature variability over Turkey since 1800 CE reconstructed from a broad network of tree-ring data

“…The box (dashed line) represents the area for which the temperature reconstruction was performed. (Wick et al, 2003;Jones et al, 2006;Roberts et al, , 2012Kuzucuoglu et al, 2011;Woodbridge and Roberts, 2011;Ülgen et al, 2012;Dean et al, 2013) and tree rings, have been used to reconstruct long-term hydroclimate conditions over Turkey. Tree rings in particular have shown to provide useful information about the past climate of Turkey and were used intensively during the last decade to reconstruct precipitation in the Aegean (Griggs et al, 2007), Black Sea (Akkemik et al, , 2008Martin-Benitto et al, 2016), Mediterranean regions (Touchan et al, 2005a), as well as the Sivas (D'Arrigo and Cullen, 2001), southwestern (Touchan et al, 2003(Touchan et al, , 2007Köse et al, 2013), south-central and western Anatolian regions of Turkey.…”

Genetic differentiation of the Meriones tristrami (Mammalia: Rodentia)subpopulations in Turkey – inferring allozyme variations

“…Matrix of coefficients of genetic distance (D) (Nei, 1978) (Strömberg et al, 2007). Anatolian endorheism (inner sea and lake systems) in Holocene is thought to form the natural barriers in central Anatolia (Kuzucuoğlu et al, 2011). M. tristrami is widely distributed on the Anatolian steppe with six geographic races that have a distributional gap from Sivas to the east of Van Province (Yiğit and Çolak, 1998;Yiğit et al, 1998bYiğit et al, , 2013 Bulut and Yiğit (2011), M. t. blackleri diverged more than did the other two subspecies, which is consistent with our results.…”

Further Evidence for a “Late Assyrian Dry Phase” in the Near East During the Mid-to-Late Seventh Century B.C.?

“…The age-depth model of this sequence is based on 11 AMS 14 C dates obtained from pollen grains that were extracted from the sediment core at regular 50 cm intervals; the mean 1-Σ error range for these AMS 14 C dates was 71.91 years (see Table 1; also previous article (Schneider and Adalı 2014: 436-37), they will be revisited here in greater detail. Kuzucuoğlu et al 2011: Table 2). Proxy data for conditions in the vicinity during the mid-first millennium B.C.…”