Climatically Driven Landscape Evolution in the High-Mountainous Russian Altai and Its Human Occupation Over the Past 20 Thousand Years

2021 ◽  
pp. 269-297
Author(s):  
Anna Agatova ◽  
◽  
Roman Nepop ◽  
Igor Slyusarenko ◽  
Piotr Moska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Occupation ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Southeastern Part ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Human Habitat ◽  
Landscape Transformations ◽  
The Last Two Millennia ◽  
Russian Altai

Multidisciplinary studies of various natural archives indicate contrasting changes in the human habitat in the high-mountainous southeastern part of the Russian Altai during the last 20,000 years. This period includes the final stage of the last glaciation and its degradation, the formation of the last giant ice-dammed lakes in the intermountain basins and their cataclysmic draining, considerable transformation of glacial landscapes to modern diverse and mosaic structure. Warmer and more humid climate in the first half of the Holocene was followed by cooling and repeated advances of mountain glaciers. The general trend to cooling and aridization in the second half of the Holocene is the most pronounced during the last two millennia. Deglaciation and final drying of intermountain basins boosted a renovation of the local ecosystems and established an environmental baseline of human occupation in the region. The arid climate, widespread permafrost and low population density determined a good preservation of archaeological heritage in the region, which is located at the crossroad between East and West, North and South. This paper presents the analysis of previously published and new data including newly obtained 14C and OSL dates, which allow to correlate climatically driven landscape transformations with habitat of ancient communities and cultures shifting in the region during the last 20, 000 years, as well as to assess the anthropogenic impact on the environment.

Vegetation dynamics of the eastern Mediterranean region during the Holocene

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esmeralda Cruz-Silva ◽  
Sandy P. Harrison ◽  
Elena Marinova ◽  
I. Colin Prentice
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Likelihood Function ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Similarity Index ◽  
Vegetation Changes ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation Patterns

<p>The circum-Mediterranean region is characterized by high climatic diversity derived from its orographic heterogeneity and the influence of global marine and atmospheric circulation patterns. The region also has a long and dynamic history of human occupation dating back to ~ 8000 years BP.  The complexity of this area is a challenge for reconstructing the dynamics of the vegetation through the Holocene. Rule-based approaches to reconstructing changing vegetation patterns through time are insufficient as they require the imposition of subjective boundaries between biomes and can be affected by known biases in pollen representation.  We have developed and tested a new method that characterises biomes as a function of observed pollen assemblages based on a similarity index, conceptually related to the likelihood function, which takes account of within-biome variability in taxon abundances. We use 1181 modern pollen samples from the EMBSeCBIO database and assign these samples to biomes as represented in a map of potential natural vegetation that was developed using machine learning. The method was applied down-core to reconstruct past vegetation changes. Preliminary results show that this new methodology produces more accurate biome assignments under modern conditions (<80% accuracy) and more stable down-core reconstructions, apparently reducing the "flickering switch" problem found when using the traditional biomisation method for this purpose. Climate-induced vegetation changes are observable on a sub-regional scale in the Eastern Mediterranean through the Holocene. Most of the records show a change from humid to more arid biomes between 4000 and 3000 years BP. However, they are distinct subregional patterns in the expression and timing of wetter conditions during the Holocene. Mountain regions appear to show more muted changes during the Holocene, although there are biome shifts everywhere across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.</p>

The Holocene Occupations of Southern Belize

2020 ◽  
pp. 16-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith M. Prufer ◽  
Douglas J. Kennett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Reconstruction ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Social Pressures ◽  
History Of ◽  
Underlying Processes

In Chapter 2, Keith Prufer and Douglas J. Kennett focus on the long history of human occupation in southern Belize, from initial colonization at the end of the Pleistocene to the present. First occupied by Paleoindians, the landscape of southern Belize has seen 10 millennia of cultural modifications. The authors, drawing on more than two decades of archaeological research, discuss why studying the long historical trajectories of settlements within a region can provide data about how humans adapt and reorganize over long periods of time and insights into underlying processes of resilience and reorganization in response to climatic, demographic, and social pressures. The chapter draws on climate reconstruction data to look at Holocene adaptations to a changing landscape.

scholarly journals Ounjougou (Mali): A history of holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara

Antiquity ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (301) ◽  
pp. 579-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Huysecom ◽  
S. Ozainne ◽  
F. Raeli ◽  
A. Ballouche ◽  
M. Rasse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
The South ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Environmental Sequence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Holocene Period

The area of Ounjougou consists of a series of gullies cut through Upper Pleistocene and Holocene formations on the Dogon Plateau in the Sahel at the south edge of the Sahara Desert. Here the authors have chronicled a stratified sequence of human occupation from the tenth to the second millennium BC, recording natural and anthropogenic strata containing artefacts and micro- and macro- palaeoecological remains, mostly in an excellent state of preservation. They present a first synthesis of the archaeological and environmental sequence for the Holocene period, define five main occupation phases for Ounjougou, and attempt to place them within the context of West African prehistory.

Late Pleistocene-Holocene Oceanographic Changes in the Northeastern Pacific

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted C. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Summer Temperature ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Northeastern Pacific ◽  
Radiolarian Assemblages

AbstractThe distributions of the radiolarian assemblages in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean were determined and correlated with the average summer temperature of the near surface waters of this region. These assemblages were compared with those in three sediment cores taken beneath the Transition Zone waters. This comparison indicates that the assemblage off Oregon at the last maximum cold interval (24,000 yr B.P.) was like that now found off southern Alaska. The correlation of the radiolarian assemblages with temperature gives an estimate of 11°C for the average summer temperature at that time. This is approximately 4°C cooler than present day conditions in the area. Superimposed on the general warming trend that began 24,000 y.a., there are minor oscillations in the assemblages which correspond to estimates of temperature change of about 2°C in the Pleistocene and about 1°C in the Holocene. In the Holocene, these minor warm intervals appear to be approximately synchronous with advances in mountain glaciers.

scholarly journals HUMAN OCCUPATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT DURING THE HOLOCENE IN THE RIVER CAUCA VALLEY, COLOMBIA: THE EVIDENCE FROM PALEOBOTANY AND FROM SOIL STUDIES

2013 ◽  
pp. 159-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Duncan ◽  
Marianne Cardale Schrimpjf ◽  
Ana Maria Groot ◽  
Pedro Botero ◽  
Alejandra Betancourt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Occupation ◽  
The Holocene

scholarly journals Glacier response to Holocene warmth inferred from in situ <sup>10</sup>Be and <sup>14</sup>C bedrock analyses in Steingletscher’s forefield (central Swiss Alps)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Schimmelpfennig ◽  
Joerg Schaefer ◽  
Jennifer Lamp ◽  
Vincent Godard ◽  
Roseanne Schwartz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Warm Season ◽  
Summer Temperature ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Thermal Maximum ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Driving Mechanisms

Abstract. Mid-latitude mountain glaciers sensitively respond to local summer temperature changes. Chronologies of past glacier fluctuations based on the investigation of glacial landforms therefore allows for a better understanding of warm-season climate variability at local scale. In this study, we focus on the Holocene, the current interglacial of the last 11,700 years, which remains matter of dispute regarding its temperature evolution and underlying driving mechanisms. In particular, the nature and significance of the transition from the early to mid-Holocene and of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) are still debated. Here, we apply a new approach by combining in situ cosmogenic 10Be moraine and 10Be-14C bedrock dating from the same site, the forefield of Steingletscher (European Alps), and reconstruct the glacier’s millennial recession and advance periods. The results suggest that subsequent to the final deglaciation at ~10 ka, the glacier was mostly smaller than its 2000 CE extent until ~3 ka, followed by the predominant occurrence of glacier advances until the end of the Little Ice Age in the 19th century. These findings agree with existing proxy records of Holocene summer temperature and glacier evolution in the Alps, showing that glaciers throughout the region retreated beyond modern extents for most of the Early and mid-Holocene. This implies that at least the summer climate of the HTM was warmer than that of the end of the 20th century for several millennia. Further investigations are necessary to refine the magnitude of warming and the potential HTM seasonality.

scholarly journals On soil genesis in temperate humid climate. VIII. The formation of a "udalfic" eutrochrepi.

1970 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Van Schuylenborgh ◽  
S. Slager ◽  
A.G. Jongmans
Keyword(s):  
Biological Activity ◽  
Clay Minerals ◽  
Redox Processes ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Soil Genesis ◽  
Fe Oxide ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Differential Movement ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Soil Forming Processes

The active soil-forming processes occurring in a Holocene alluvial deposit were: the formation, along voids, of illuvial cutans consisting of clay minerals, Fe oxide and fine matric components (matriferriargillans), differential movement of clay minerals, kaolinite being most mobile; partial transformation of smectites into kandites; disturbance of cutans by biological activity resulting in the formation of papules; redox processes leading to the formation of micro-segregation of Fe oxide. The difference in character and location of matriferriargillans and ferriargillans is discussed. The former are thought to have been synthesized in the Holocene period and the latter in Pleistocene times. The soil is classifiable as a dystric eutrochrept, but as plasma movement generally occurs only in "dystric" (decalcified) material, the soil could be classified as a "udalfic" eutrochrept. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)

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