Hydro-climate research of the late quaternary of the Eastern Mediterranean-Levant region based on speleothems research - A review

QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

卷:221

Review

Bar-Matthews, M.¹  Keinan, J.^1,2  Ayalon, A.¹ 

[1] Geol Survey Israel, Yishaayahu Leibowitz St 32, Jerusalem, Israel

[2] Hebrew Univ Jerusalem, Inst Earth Sci, IL-91904 Jerusalem, Israel

关键词: Paleoclimate;    Dead Sea Basin;    Glacials;    Marine Isotope Stage 5e;    Sapropels;    Speleothems;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.105872

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The Eastern Mediterranean (EM) - Levant region is the eastern borderland of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS). The EMS brings Mediterranean climate zones to the immediate coastal region and hinterland, but away from the influence of the EMS, the region rapidly becomes a desert. Paleoclimate evidence derived from a large number of studies on speleothems from caves located along sharp climatic gradients enables deep insight into the climate in the EM-Levant region. Growth periods and isotopic composition of speleothems from the various climate regimes capture the regional signals of temperature, rainfall amount and vegetation. Speleothems from northern and central Israel grew continuously in areas where present-day annual rainfall is similar to 400-500 mm and show that water was always available during glacials and interglacials. These speleothems display a well-defined delta O-18 orbital modulation of glacial and interglacial marine isotope stages (MIS) and show good correlations with the EMS marine records, pointing to strong direct sea-land links. The climatic record indicates relatively drier and cooler glacials but extreme wet peaks during interglacials, mainly MIS Se between 128-120 ka BP. Pluvial conditions penetrated to the northern, central and southern Negev Desert. The present-day climatic gradient between the different climatic regions existed through interglacials. However, growth periods of speleothems from the northern Negev Desert, from the rain shadow' desert, and the Dead Sea Basin, suggest that during last glacial the desert boundary moved from its interglacial and present-day position similar to 30 km farther south and similar to 60 km farther east, due to positive water balance. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free