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Table 13.2 Geographical attributes for three long pollen records in Greece (modifi ed after
Tzedakis et al., 2004). Ioannina is west of the Pindus Mountains and is the highest site with
much higher rainfall than both Kopais and Tenaghi Philippon. Kopais is the driest site with
higher summer and winter temperatures and greater losses of moisture to evaporation.
Tenaghi Philippon is the most northerly location and is prone to incursions of cold conti-
nental air masses from the north and east. These topographic and meteorological factors
combine to create limiting factors for tree growth in the drier parts of Greece to the east of
the Pindus Mountains divide
Site
Latitude and Longitude
Elevation
MAP
T jan
Tenaghi Philippon
41º10
N and 24º20
E
40 m
600 mm
3.4ºC
Ioannina
39º45
N and 20º51
E
470 m
1200 mm
4.6ºC
Kopais
95 m
470 mm
9.0ºC
38º26
N and 23º03
E
Figure 13.7 Speleothems and palaeoclimate data from speleothem records in the
Mediterranean. The photograph shows speleothems from Campanet Cave in Mallorca.
The diagram shows an oxygen isotope curve from speleothems in Soreq Cave in Israel
based on the work of Bar-Matthews et al. (2000). The record shown here goes back
to MIS 6 and evidence for rapid climate change is especially clear in marine isotope
stages 5, 3 and 2 (modifi ed after Bar-Matthews et al., 2000).
impacted on climatic conditions across the entire Mediterranean region (Bar Mat-
thews et al., 1999) and it also shows that some were felt more strongly than others.
Such proxy climate records from the Mediterranean are important because the
region contains many Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites and the region formed a
refuge for humans during the last cold stage.
Environmental Archives: Resolution and Sensitivity
All Quaternary archives of change that provide us with insights into past environ-
ments and processes can usefully be assessed and compared in terms of their tem-
 
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