Lake Van Drilling Project "PALEOVAN", a long continental record in eastern Turkey: Geochronology, palynostratigraphy and environmental response on volcanic events

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Thomas Litt; Professor Dr. Roland Oberhänsli
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2013 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235992761

• Final Report Year: 2019

Final Report Abstract

The new high-resolution Lake Van pollen record provides a unique sequence of the penultimate interglacial–glacial cycle in eastern Anatolia (broadly equivalent to MIS 7 and MIS 6) that fills the gap in data coverage between the northern Levant and southern Europe. During the penultimate interglacial complex (MIS 7e, 7c, and 7a), high local and regional effective soil moisture availability is evidenced by a well-developed temperate oak steppeforest with pistachio and juniper, high charcoal accumulation, and reduced physical erosion during the climate optima. The direct comparison with southwestern European records shows that all three terrestrial warm intervals are characterized by clear interglacial conditions, with the largest extent of tree vegetation during MIS 7c instead of MIS 7e. This underlines once again the sensitive environmental response to global climate change in the continental setting of the Near East compared to global ice volume and/or greenhouse gas. During the penultimate glacial, strong aridification and cold climate conditions are inferred from open desert-steppe vegetation that favours soil erosion and high terrigenous input. In addition, the sensitive Lake Van pollen record reveals high temperate oscillations between 193 and 157 ka, followed by a period of lower tree variations and the predominance of desert-steppe from 157 to 131 ka that highlighted Dansgaard–Oeschger-like events during MIS 6.

Publications

• (2014): A 600,000 year long continental pollen record from Lake Van, eastern Anatolia (Turkey). JQSR 104, 30-41
  Litt, T., Pickarski, N., Heumann, G., Stockhecke, M., Tzedakis, P.C.
  
• 2014. Chronostratigraphy of the 600,000 year old long continental record of Lake Van (Turkey). JQSR 104, 8-17
  Stockhecke, M., Kwiecien, O., Vigliotti, L., Anselmetti, F., Beer, J., Cagatay, N., Channell, J.E.T., Kipfer, R., Lachner, J., Litt, T., Pickarski, N., Sturm, M.
  
• 2014. Dynamics of the Last Four Glacial Terminations recorded in Lake Van, Turkey. JQSR 104, 42-52
  Kwiecien, O., Stockhecke, M., Pickarski, N., Heumann, G., Litt, T., Sturm, M., Anselmetti, F.S., Kipfer, R., Haug, G.H.
  
• 2014. Lake Van deep drilling project PALEOVAN. JQSR 104, 1-7
  Litt, T., Anselmetti, F.
  
• 2015. Abrupt climate and vegetation variability of eastern Anatolia during the last glacial, Clim. Past, 11, 1491–1505
  Pickarski, N., Kwiecien, O., Langgut, D., and Litt, T.
  
• 2015. Vegetation and environmental changes during the last interglacial in eastern Anatolia (Turkey): a new highresolution pollen record from Lake Van, PALAEO 3, 145–158
  Pickarski, N., Kwiecien, O., Djamali, M., and Litt, T.
  
• 2016. Millennial to orbital-scale variations of drought intensity in the Eastern Mediterranean, JQSR 133, 77–95
  Stockhecke, M., Timmermann, A., Kipfer, R., Haug, G.H., Kwiecien, O., Friedrich, T., Menviel, L., Litt, T., Pickarski, N., and Anselmetti, F. S.
  
• 2017. A new high-resolution pollen sequence at Lake Van, Turkey: insights into penultimate interglacial-glacial climate change on vegetation history. Clim. Past 13, 689-710
  Pickarski, N., Litt, T.