The Little Ice Age in a semi-arid environment : the Gialias catchment area (Cyprus) and its relationship with land use

The Little Ice Age (LIA) is known as a cool and humid climatic period characterized by an increase of detrital activity and flood frequency of all fluvial systems in the Mediterranean area (PICHARD 1995, GREENBAUM et al. 1999). In addition this period coincides with an increase in agricultural activity. The combination of these two phenomena has led several authors to describe a major climatic and anthropic crisis in southern France. The aim of this paper is to identify and quantify the dynamics of a semi-arid watershed during the Little Ice Age: the Gialias River, a major watershed in Cyprus. Changes in the nature and frequency of floods have been studied using sedimentology, micropedology and rock magnetism. The chronological background was obtained through AMS C-14 and numerous archaeological dates. A clear link between fluvial changes and landuse variability was identified in the vicinity of the Potamia village. The results show a decrease in flash flood frequency during the LIA. High sedimentation rates can be explained by a greater occurrence of temperate floods, which yield less sediment than flash floods at the event scale. This combination of variations in stream flow and land use allow us to redefine the environmental crisis concept linked to the Little Ice Age for this type of dry mediterranean milieu.