Past Climate Variability throughout the Eastern Mediterranean Region
by
M. Bar-Matthews
Coauthors: Quaternary Research Group of Israel (QRGI)

The Eastern Mediterranean region is situated in a unique location within the PEP III transect, covering a large climatic spectrum. The area includes several Mediterranean-type climate belts. To the north the climate is relatively cold and humid (with a maximum annual rainfall of ~1500 mm and minimum average temperatures 7°C. This gradually changes to a semi-arid Mediterranean-type climate, which in turn gives way to an arid warm climate to the south and east (with less than 100 mm rain and average temperatures of 27°C). Also, the area records low-latitude climate signals because of the Nile input to the coastal area offshore Israel. The area is highly populated and even minor changes in climate influence the human habitation in the region. The Quaternary Research Group of Israel includes a large number of scholars from various fields and academic institutes. In a large number of multidisciplinary studies the group has established and applied high-resolution proxies to reconstruct marine and terrestrial climatic processes. These studies assist in the understanding of the present-day relationships among marine, atmospheric and terrestrial systems. Various proxy data were used in the reconstruction of paleo-hydrological conditions, paleo-temperatures, paleo-precipitation (mainly evaporation/precipitation), changes in vegetation, dust accumulation, soil development, lake sediments, lake levels and the migration of climatic belts ranging from the snow-line to the desert boundary. Our presentation highlights the joint efforts of the Israeli research group in reconstructing past-climate variability in the area.

Date received: March 29, 2001

Copyright © 2001 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cagc-59.