Search results for " Holocene"

High-frequency climate fluctuations over the last deglaciation in the Alboran Sea, Western Mediterranean: Evidence from calcareous plankton assemblag…

2018

Abstract A high resolution study, with a centennial scale resolution, has been performed on the calcareous plankton assemblage (coccolithophores and planktonic foraminifera) at Ocean Drilling Program Site 976, Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean), focusing on the interval between 20 and 9 ka, in order to reconstruct changes in surface and subsurface water dynamics and productivity. The biotic surface water proxies integrate the extremely detailed (multi-decadal scale) geochemical data set and the pollen record already available at the core, thus providing a complete paleoenvironmental/paleoceanographic reconstruction. The results highlight the sensitivity of the calcareous plankton in record…

Changing Plant-based Subsistence Practices among Early and Middle Holocene Communities in Eastern Maghreb

2020

The eastern Maghreb is a key area for understanding environmental and cultural dynamics during the early and middle Holocene. Capsian populations from around 10000–7500 cal BP were among the last foragers in the region. Capsian sites are known as escargotières (land shell middens), and locally called rammadiyat (meaning ashy mound). As taphonomic conditions in Capsian open-air sites generally favour the preservation of resistant materials such as shells and bones rather than fragile plant remains, this study integrates macro-botanical and microfossil evidence from phytoliths, calcitic wood ash pseudomorphs and dung spherulites, since each is influenced by different formation and post-deposi…

A multiproxy study of Younger Dryas and Early Holocene climatic conditions from the Grabia River paleo-oxbow lake (central Poland)

2015

International audience; A multi-proxy reconstruction of water depth, temperature and precipitation inferred from Cladocera, Chironomidae and pollen assemblages has been obtained from Świerczyna paleo-oxbow (central Poland) during the Younger Dryas (YD) and Early Holocene. Results suggest that the YD was relatively cold and comprised two main phases. The first (ca. 12,500–12,000 cal. yrs BP) is characterized by a continental climatic regime and a decrease in winter temperatures and precipitation but an increase in spring/summer precipitation. The second phase (ca. 12,000–11,500 cal. yrs BP) was more mild with a variable continental climate, an increase in summer and winter temperature, a len…

Biogeochemical cycling and ecological thresholds in a High Arctic lake (Svalbard)

2019

Lakes are a dominant feature of the Arctic landscape and a focal point of regional and global biogeochemical cycling. We collected a sediment core from a High Arctic Lake in southwestern Svalbard for multiproxy paleolimnological analysis. The aim was to find linkages between the terrestrial and aquatic environments in the context of climate change to understand centennial-long Arctic biogeochemical cycling and environmental dynamics. Two significant thresholds in elemental cycling were found based on sediment physical and biogeochemical proxies that were associated with the end of the cold Little Ice Age and the recent warming. We found major shifts in diatom, chironomid and cladoceran comm…

The New Finding of a Mycenaean Tholos in the Alluvial Deposits of the Messina Coastal Plain (north-Eastern Sicily): Stratigraphic and Palaeoenvironme…

2012

Millstones as indicators of relative sea-level changes in northern Sicily and southern Calabria coastlines, Italy

2011

Abstract New data are presented for late Holocene relative sea-level changes in two coastal sites of Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy. Reconstructions are based on precise measurements of submerged archaeological remains that are valuable indicators of past sea-level position. The archaeological remains are millstone quarries carved on sandstone coastal rocks and nowadays partially submerged which, to the authors’ knowledge, are used for the first time as sea-level markers. Millstones of similar typology are located on the coast of Capo d’Orlando (northern Sicily) and Capo dell’Armi (southern Calabria). When the archeologically-based sea-level position is compared with the shoreline elev…

Drivers of peat accumulation rate in a raised bog: impact of drainage, climate, and local vegetation composition

2017

We used variation partitioning to assess the relative importance of drainage, climate and local vegetation composition for the development of a raised bog. As a case study we selected Teici (Teici) Bog in Latvia (north-east Europe). Explanatory variables together explained 74 % of the variation in peat accumulation and only the residue of 26 % remained unexplained. Our study showed that the local vegetation composition and dominant Sphagnum species significantly influence peat accumulation rates. The results of linear models revealed that, under natural conditions, minor drainage and even strong drainage of the peat is associated with a positive growth balance of the system. However, draina…

Holocene climate variability in Sicily from a discontinuous stalagmite record and the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition

2006

AbstractFabric and stable isotopic composition of a Holocene stalagmite (CR1) from a cave in northern Sicily record changes in paleorainfall in the early Holocene. High δ13C stable isotope values in the calcite deposited from ca. 8500 to ca. 7500 yr ago are interpreted as reflecting periods of high rainfall. The wet phase was interrupted by two periods of multi-century duration characterized by relatively cool and dry winters centered at ca. 8200 and ca. 7500 yr ago, highlighted by low δ13C and δ18O values. A high variability of δ13C values is recorded from ca. 7500 to ca. 6500 yr ago and indicates that the transition from a pluvial early Holocene to the present-day climate conditions was p…

Soil is the best testifier of the diachronous dawn of the Anthropocene

2021

Humans act at worldwide scale as a growing geomorphic agent since mid‐Holocene (8,200–4,200 y BP) through the pervasive impacts of domestication, deforestation, agriculture, urbanization, and mining. The concept of Anthropocene has been introduced exactly to indicate the timespan in which humans have joined with other natural forces in impacting the outermost shell of the planet and the biosphere. Soils, which are the Earth's skin, are sensitive archives of any major human‐induced local to global change. Especially when buried, soils can permanently preserve the primordial traces of a significant impact of man on the environment, which occurred at different times and rates in different area…

Human influence on faunal turnover during Early Holocene in Sicily

2012

Session: Environment, climate and human impact: the archaeological evidence AIQUA CONGRESS 2012 February 15-17 Pisa, Italy 71 HUMAN INFLUENCE ON FAUNAL TURNOVER DURING EARLY HOLOCENE IN SICILY Petruso D., Sineo L. Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale e Biodiversità, University of Palermo, Via Archirafi, 18, 90123 Palermo, Italy The faunistic analysis at the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Sicily allows to understand the ecologic and/or human role in the faunal turn over of the island. Following the work of Petruso et al. (in press) we assessed that at the Pleniglacial-Late Glacial interval, in supposed absence of human occurrence, were already extinct the last endemites (the middle s…