EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN QUATERNARY PALEOCLIMATES FROM POLLEN AND ISOTOPE RECORDS OF MARINE CORES IN THE NILE CONE AREA

Pollen spectra from three eastern Mediterranean cores have been used t o document the paleoclimates of the Levantine Basin borderlands over t he last 250 kyr to establish the relationship between this regional cl imate data set and the global climate as recorded by foraminiferal del ta(18)O and to compare it with proximal land pollen records. Core MD 8 4 642 with eight sapropels covers the last two climatic cycles up to t he early Holocene, MD 84 627 with four sapropels goes back to 125 kyr, and MD 84 629 with one sapropel covers the last 70 kyr. The sedimenta tion rate decreases from core 629, located at the shallowest depth ben eath the Nile River plume, to cores 627 and 642. During the interglaci als defined by a low 18O/16O ratio, the abundance of tree pollen is ma ximum and points to an optimum Mediterranean climate with greatest hum idity, including some summer rainfall. During glacial maxima, with hig hest 18O/16O ratio, the pollen abundance is high for steppe and semide sert plants and low for trees, indicating a definitely more arid, more continental, and probably colder climate. The variations of pollen ab undance occur in phase with those of the foraminifer delta 18O record. This signifies that the regional climate of the Levantine Basin borde rlands had the same temporal pattern as the global ice volume document ed by the ice volume curve.