Late Quaternary western Mediterranean pollen records and African winds

Late Quaternary vegetation changes of regional and global significance in the Mediterranean region are generally interpreted as being controlled by changes in the circulation patterns of North Atlantic air masses. However, the possibility cannot be excluded that they may also be related to winds blowing from Africa. Long pollen records from southwest Europe show that Cedrus pollen of northwest African provenance is found during the glacial periods, and occasionally during abrupt deforestation events in the forest-dominated periods of the interglacials. A pollen concentration record from central Italy shows that during the Holocene the presence of Cedrus pollen coincides with two abrupt deforestation events, around 8.1 and 4.2 cal kyr BP. These observations raise the question of a possible influence of eolian activity on arboreal vegetation during phases of climatic stress towards aridity, and suggest the use of modern pollen monitoring as a strategy for revealing tendencies towards aridification in southwestern Europe. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.