Description: Das Projekt "Arid Southern Levant: a joint environmental and human history for the Holocene, derived from new archives of climate change (Dead Sea edge, Jordan)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Bern, Departement Biologie, Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften durchgeführt. This project proposes to explore the potential of sedimentary sequences from arid Southern Levant to record past environmental and climate changes that can be compared with the evolution of human societies during the Holocene. The Levant, crucible of history, actually possesses very few archives of past climate change in its most arid parts, which restricts the possibility to compare, on a regional scale, environmental variation and the evolution of human communities through time. The region is characterised by contrasted bioclimatic conditions, from Mediterranean-type to arid. Most of the known records of environmental change are located in the moister, Mediterranean zones of the region, where increased water availability permits the presence - or the better preservation - of high-resolution and continuous archives of past climates. However, the potential of the arid environments of the Southern Levant (roughly corresponding to modern Israel, Palestine, and Jordan) to harbour records of Holocene (last ca. 11,500 years) climate change, is far from being exploited to its full extend. Following the unique discovery of Holocene organic, peat-like deposits in the rain-shadow of the Dead Sea area in Jordan, this project proposes to investigate the potential of this currently arid region to record past environmental and climate change. The organic sequences present in the mountain slopes East of the Dead Sea have been shown to contain very good pollen information. Results from a preliminary pollen study provided in particular evidence for the periodic extension of Mediterranean-type forest vegetation, from the upper Mediterranean plateaus down to the study area. These organic sequences can be further exploited to generate more precisely dated (mainly through radiocarbon techniques) and higher-resolution records of climate and environmental change for the Holocene. Pollen data will be complemented by a series of other proxies: charcoal studies indicating recurrent fires, spores and fungi revealing past grazing activities, diatom assemblages showing changes in the water quality, increased detrital content marking periods of enhanced erosion. All these results can then be integrated into dynamic models of local environmental changes and vegetation response. Furthermore, the same area contains multiple sequences of spring carbonates (tufa / travertine) waiting to be studied. The stable isotopic (oxygen and carbon) composition of spring carbonates can provide a good record of past climate change, as it registers variations in environmental factors such as temperature, parent-water composition (itself related to the source and amount of rainfall), and evaporation. The presence of carbonate sequences near organic sequences on the edge of the Dead Sea, offers an unprecedented occasion to directly compare the isotopic variations of carbonate series with environmental variations recorded in the peaty archives.
Types:
SupportProgram
Origin: /Bund/UBA/UFORDAT
Tags: Tierhaltungsanlage ? Holzkohle ? Vegetation ? Carbonat ? Jordan ? Gewässerdaten ? Diatomeen ? Kohlenstoff ? Pflanzensamen ? Sauerstoff ? Skigebiet ? Erosion ? Brunnen ? Israel ? Totes Meer ? Schattenwurf ? Palästina ? Datierung ? Genehmigung ? Sporen ? Temperatur ? Torf ? Verdunstung ? Hafen ? Konservierung ? Kalkstein ? Gelöster organischer Kohlenstoff ? Wasserverfügbarkeit ? Regen ? Wasser ? Beweidung ? Evolution ? Gewässerqualität ? Mensch ? Studie ? Technik ? Umweltgeschichte ? Umweltmodell ? Wasserqualität ? Sediment ? Trockengebiet ? Pilz ? Bioklima ? Berg ? Bewässerung ? Feuerung ? Klima ? Klimawandel ? Niederschlag ? Ökologischer Faktor ? Pollen ? Umwelt ? Umweltveränderung ? Wald ? Gebiet ? Gebirge ? Hang ? Änderung ? Ballungsraum ? SEDIMENTAER ? Eltern ? GEMEINSCHAFT ? GEHALT ? PROJEKT ? SONSTIG ? SUEDLICH ? Sequenzierung ? Stall ? TEIL ? VERANTWORTUNG ? DAUER ? RAU ? GEGENWART ? VERFUEGBARKEIT ? GUETER ? HOLOZAEN ? VERGLEICHEN ? VERHAELTNIS ? VERWANDT ? Vermehrung ? ZEITRAEUME ? MOEGLICHKEIT ? REGIONAL ? ERGEBNIS ? NEU ? POTENZIAL ?
License: cc-by-nc-nd/4.0
Language: Deutsch
Time ranges: 2011-11-01 - 2014-10-31
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