Publication Date:
2015-10-09
Description:
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 20ka 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-mid Holocene is characterized by a trend towards higher P-E state, culminating between ~7 and 6 ka BP. The mid-late Holocene is characterized by two millennial-length drier periods during 5.3–4.2 and 2.8–1.4ka BP. On sub-millennial 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.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
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