SPP 1006 - Subproject: Paleoclimate and paleoecology of the continental Eastern Mediterranean region - High-resolution pollen analysis from Lake Van during the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 8 to 10)

Basic data for this project

Description

Our current knowledge about paleoclimate development in the Near East beyond 250,000 years is rather poor. Lake Van (Eastern Anatolia, Turkey) represents an excellent key site for the investigation of the climatic evolution in the continental Eastern Mediterranean region. It fills the gap in data coverage between northern Levant and Mediterranean region. The project offers the unique opportunity to evaluate the variability of local / regional vegetation, fire frequency and climate variability during the third-last glacial-interglacial cycle (Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 8 to 10; ca. 240 to 350 ka BP) by combing interdisciplinary data from palynology, microscopic charcoal and stable isotopes. The high-resolution palynological datasets resulting from this project are the basis for biome modelling and reconstruction of the climate development in the Eastern Mediterranean region tested with multivariate statistical methods (e.g., probability density function for reconstruction of temperature and precipitation). The aim of this study is the investigation of global climate signals below the frequency of Milankovitch cycles to determine whether they demonstrate a direct impact on vegetation composition and/or on the environmental conditions in this climatic sensitive region.