Journal
PALAEOBIODIVERSITY AND PALAEOENVIRONMENTS
Volume 101, Issue 1, Pages 197-212Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s12549-020-00464-x
Keywords
Last Glacial– Holocene pollen flora; W Black Sea– Marmara Sea regions; Plant diversity; Vegetation dynamics; Climate reconstruction; Climatostratigraphy
Categories
Funding
- European Community Project ASSEMBLAGE [EVK3-CT-2002-00090]
- Fullbright Grant
- Von Humboldt grant
Ask authors/readers for more resources
High-resolution pollen analyses were conducted on cores from the western Black Sea and Marmara Sea, revealing significant changes in regional flora over the past 20,000 years due to climatic fluctuations. Evidence of relict thermophilous-hygrophilous trees was found in certain refugia up to the Holocene, and the study provided insights into vegetation dynamics and paleoclimatic reconstructions in the region.
High-resolution pollen analyses were performed on two cores from the western Black Sea and one core from the Marmara Sea, covering the Late Glacial-Holocene transition using C-14 chronology. Particular effort was invested in the botanical identification of pollen grains thereby significantly improving our knowledge of regional flora. When interpreted with respect to modern vegetation, pollen records revealed all the major changes caused by climatic fluctuations over the last 20,000 years. The results of this study provide evidence for the occurrence of relict thermophilous-hygrophilous trees (papillate Cupressaceae, Carya, Liquidambar, Zelkova) in certain refugia up to the Holocene. Vegetation dynamics is specified for some taxa (e.g. Cupressus-Juniperus, Fagus, Cedrus) and some ecosystems (e.g. mesophilous forests, Mediterranean sclerophyllous populations, steppes). Pollen data enabled palaeoclimatic reconstructions which were compared with available estimates in the region. The use of a powerful pollen ratio between 'thermophilous and steppe taxa' led to fruitful climatostratigraphic relationships with the oxygen isotope curve from the NGRIP core. The Younger Dryas and cooling at 8.2 ka are among the most obvious climatic phases identified in the three cores studied here.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available