Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of SE Europe -NW Asia according to pollen records in three offshore cores from the Black and Marmara seas

• Published in: Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments
• Main Authors: Popescu, Speranta-Maria, Jiménez-Moreno, Gonzalo, Klotz, Stefan, Lericolais, Gilles, Guichard, François, Çağatay, M, Namik, Giosan, Liviu, Calleja, Michel, Fauquette, Séverine, Suc, Jean-Pierre
• Other Authors: GeoBioStratData.Consulting, Rillieux la Pape, France, Departamento de Estratigrafia y paleontologia, Université de grenade, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen = Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Faculty of Mining, Istanbul, Geology and Geophysics Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (UMR ISEM), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de recherche pour le développement IRD : UR226-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut des Sciences de la Terre de Paris (iSTeP), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Last Glacial – Holocene pollen flora; W Black Sea – Marmara Sea regions; Plant diversity; Vegetation dynamics; Climate reconstruction; Climatostratigraphy; [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; NGRIP
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02957446; https://hal.science/hal-02957446/document; https://hal.science/hal-02957446/file/Popescu%20et%20al.,%20in%20press,%20Palaeobiodiversity%20and%20Palaeoenvironments.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-020-00464-x

International audience 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 14C 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.