The climate variability in northern Levant over the past 20,000 years

The Levant constitutes an important region for assessing linkages between climate and societal changes throughout the course of human history. However, large uncertainties remain in our understanding of the region's hydroclimate variability under varying boundary conditions. Here we present a new high‐resolution, precisely dated speleothem oxygen‐carbon isotope and Sr/Ca records, spanning the last 20 ka from Jeita Cave, northern Levant. Our record reveals a higher (lower) precipitation‐evaporation (P‐E) balance during the Last Glacial Maximum and Bølling interstadial (Heinrich stadial 1). The early‐middle Holocene is characterized by a trend toward higher P‐E state, culminating between ~7 and 6 ka. The middle‐late Holocene is characterized by two millennial‐length drier periods during 5.3–4.2 and 2.8–1.4 ka. On submillennial time scale, the northern Levant climate variability is dominated by 500 year periodicity. Comparisons with the regional proxy records suggest persistent out‐of‐phase climate variability between the northern and southern Levant on a wide range of timescales.

[1]  Deke Xu,et al.  500-year climate cycles stacking of recent centennial warming documented in an East Asian pollen record , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[2]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Accounting for kinetic isotope effects in Soreq Cave (Israel) speleothems , 2014 .

[3]  J. Kutzbach,et al.  Potential role of winter rainfall in explaining increased moisture in the Mediterranean and Middle East during periods of maximum orbitally-forced insolation seasonality , 2014, Climate Dynamics.

[4]  Steven L. Goldstein,et al.  Impacts of abrupt climate changes in the Levant from Last Glacial Dead Sea levels , 2013 .

[5]  M. Stein,et al.  Integrated multi-site U–Th chronology of the last glacial Lake Lisan , 2013 .

[6]  C. Ramsey,et al.  Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years , 2012, Nature.

[7]  R. Edwards,et al.  The Global Paleomonsoon as seen through speleothem records from Asia and the Americas , 2012, Climate Dynamics.

[8]  H. Oerter,et al.  9,400 years of cosmic radiation and solar activity from ice cores and tree rings , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[9]  E. Xoplaki,et al.  Palaeolimnological evidence for an east-west climate see-saw in the Mediterranean since AD 900 , 2012 .

[10]  H. Weiss,et al.  The medieval climate anomaly and the little Ice Age in coastal Syria inferred from pollen-derived palaeoclimatic patterns , 2011 .

[11]  S. Solanki,et al.  Evolution of the solar irradiance during the Holocene , 2011, 1103.4958.

[12]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Mid-Holocene climate variations revealed by high-resolution speleothem records from Soreq Cave, Israel and their correlation with cultural changes , 2011 .

[13]  G. Fiorentino,et al.  Climatic, vegetation and cultural change in the eastern Mediterranean during the mid-Holocene environmental transition , 2011 .

[14]  D. Brayshaw,et al.  Changes in Mediterranean climate during the Holocene: Insights from global and regional climate modelling , 2011 .

[15]  F. Gasse,et al.  Controlling factors on a paleo-lake oxygen isotope record (Yammoûneh, Lebanon) since the Last Glacial Maximum , 2010 .

[16]  M. Griffiths,et al.  Evidence for Holocene changes in Australian–Indonesian monsoon rainfall from stalagmite trace element and stable isotope ratios , 2010 .

[17]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Climatic variability during the last ∼90 ka of the southern and northern Levantine Basin as evident from marine records and speleothems , 2009 .

[18]  M. Stein,et al.  Stable isotope records of Late Quaternary climate and hydrology from Mediterranean lakes : the ISOMED synthesis , 2008 .

[19]  C. Khater,et al.  Vegetation changes during the late Pleistocene and Holocene in Lebanon: a pollen record from the Bekaa Valley , 2008 .

[20]  Rudy Swennen,et al.  Paleoclimate reconstruction in the Levant region from the geochemistry of a Holocene stalagmite from the Jeita cave, Lebanon , 2008, Quaternary Research.

[21]  G. Zanchetta,et al.  Last Glacial to Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution at Lago di Pergusa (Sicily, Southern Italy) as inferred by pollen, microcharcoal, and stable isotopes , 2008 .

[22]  R. Kahana,et al.  The climatic and physiographic controls of the eastern Mediterranean over the late Pleistocene climates in the southern Levant and its neighboring deserts , 2008 .

[23]  M. Stein,et al.  Evolution of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene Dead Sea Basin from Sequence Statigraphy of Fan Deltas and Lake-Level Reconstruction , 2007 .

[24]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Desert speleothems reveal climatic window for African exodus of early modern humans , 2007 .

[25]  R. Seager,et al.  El Niño as a mediator of the solar influence on climate , 2007 .

[26]  L. Labeyrie,et al.  Hydrological changes in the Mediterranean Sea over the last 30,000 years , 2007 .

[27]  S. Burns,et al.  Evidence of rainfall variations in Southern Brazil from trace element ratios (Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca) in a Late Pleistocene stalagmite , 2007 .

[28]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Paleoclimate and location of the border between Mediterranean climate region and the Saharo–Arabian Desert as revealed by speleothems from the northern Negev Desert, Israel , 2006 .

[29]  P. Valdes,et al.  A review of palaeoclimates and palaeoenvironments in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean from 25,000 to 5000 years BP: setting the environmental background for the evolution of human civilisation , 2006 .

[30]  U. Dayan,et al.  Regional and global atmospheric patterns governing rainfall in the southern Levant , 2006 .

[31]  G. Henderson,et al.  Seasonal trace-element and stable-isotope variations in a Chinese speleothem: The potential for high-resolution paleomonsoon reconstruction , 2005 .

[32]  R. Lawrence Edwards,et al.  The Holocene Asian Monsoon: Links to Solar Changes and North Atlantic Climate , 2005, Science.

[33]  K. Holmgren,et al.  Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low- and high-resolution proxy data , 2005, Nature.

[34]  Jacques Laskar,et al.  A long-term numerical solution for the insolation quantities of the Earth , 2004 .

[35]  H. Wanner,et al.  Wet season Mediterranean precipitation variability: influence of large-scale dynamics and trends , 2004 .

[36]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Constraints on hydrological and paleotemperature variations in the Eastern Mediterranean region in the last 140 ka given by the δD values of speleothem fluid inclusions , 2004 .

[37]  M. Stein,et al.  The Sahara–East Mediterranean dust and climate connection revealed by strontium and uranium isotopes in a Jerusalem speleothem , 2004 .

[38]  N. Roberts,et al.  Holocene climate, environment and cultural change in the circum-Mediterranean region , 2004 .

[39]  J. Chappell,et al.  Comparison of high resolution sub-annual records of trace elements in a modern (1911–1992) speleothem with instrumental climate data from southwest Australia , 2003 .

[40]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Sea-land oxygen isotopic relationships from planktonic foraminifera and speleothems in the Eastern Mediterranean region and their implication for paleorainfall during interglacial intervals , 2003 .

[41]  I. Fairchild,et al.  Soil and karst aquifer hydrological controls on the geochemical evolution of speleothem-forming drip waters, Crag Cave, southwest Ireland , 2003 .

[42]  A. Mackensen,et al.  Eastern Mediterranean surface water temperatures and delta O-18 composition during deposition of sapropels in the late Quaternary , 2003 .

[43]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Precise dating of Dansgaard–Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from stalagmite data , 2003, Nature.

[44]  M. Stein,et al.  Lake Levels and Sequence Stratigraphy of Lake Lisan, the Late Pleistocene Precursor of the Dead Sea , 2002, Quaternary Research.

[45]  Bernd Kromer,et al.  Persistent Solar Influence on North Atlantic Climate During the Holocene , 2001, Science.

[46]  I. Fairchild,et al.  Partitioning of Sr2+ and Mg2+ into calcite under karst-analogue experimental conditions , 2001 .

[47]  H. Schwarcz,et al.  Paleoclimate and vegetation of the Last Glacial Cycles in Jerusalem from a Speleothem Record , 2000 .

[48]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Timing and hydrological conditions of Sapropel events in the Eastern Mediterranean, as evident from speleothems, Soreq cave, Israel , 2000 .

[49]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  D/H ratios of fluid inclusions of Soreq cave (Israel) speleothems as a guide to the Eastern Mediterranean Meteoric Line relationships in the last 120 ky , 2000 .

[50]  B. Spiro,et al.  Controls on trace element Sr-Mg compositions of carbonate cave waters: implications for speleothem climatic records , 2000 .

[51]  M. Chapman,et al.  Evidence of 550-year and 1000-year cyclicities in North Atlantic circulation patterns during the Holocene , 2000 .

[52]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Petrography, strontium, barium and uranium concentrations, and strontium and uranium isotope ratios in speleothems as palaeoclimatic proxies: Soreq Cave, Israel , 1999 .

[53]  H. Schwarcz,et al.  Continental Oxygen Isotopic Record of the Last 170,000 Years in Jerusalem , 1999, Quaternary Research.

[54]  G. Wasserburg,et al.  The Eastern Mediterranean paleoclimate as a reflection of regional events: Soreq cave, Israel , 1999 .

[55]  P. Smart,et al.  ELEVATED AND VARIABLE VALUES OF 13C IN SPELEOTHEMS IN A BRITISH CAVE SYSTEM , 1997 .

[56]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Late Quaternary Paleoclimate in the Eastern Mediterranean Region from Stable Isotope Analysis of Speleothems at Soreq Cave, Israel , 1997, Quaternary Research.

[57]  M. Stuiver,et al.  The GISP2 δ18O Climate Record of the Past 16,500 Years and the Role of the Sun, Ocean, and Volcanoes , 1995, Quaternary Research.

[58]  M. Rossignol-Strick.  SEA-LAND CORRELATION OF POLLEN RECORDS IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN FOR THE GLACIAL-INTERGLACIAL TRANSITION: BIOSTRATIGRAPHY VERSUS RADIOMETRIC TIME-SCALE , 1995 .

[59]  O. Bar‐Yosef,et al.  Late Quaternary Chronology and Paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean , 1994 .

[60]  F. Gasse,et al.  The arid–humid transition in the Sahara and the Sahel during the last deglaciation , 1990, Nature.

[61]  J. Quade,et al.  Carbon isotopes in soils and palaeosols as ecology and palaeoecology indicators , 1989, Nature.

[62]  W. Broecker,et al.  Radium-228 profile at the second Geosecs intercalibration station, 1970, in the North Atlantic , 1972 .