Palynology, sedimentology and palaeoecology of the late Holocene Dead Sea
Introduction
Palynological and sedimentological studies in Israel indicate that vegetation, density of settlements, and intensity of agriculture were subject to fluctuations of climate during the late Holocene (Baruch, 1986, Baruch, 1990, Baruch, 1993, Baruch, 1994; Baruch and Bottema, 1999; Heim et al., 1997; Bookman (Ken-Tor) et al., 2004; Migowski et al., 2006). The Dead Sea region is extraordinarily suited for the exploration of past climate, vegetation, and settlement dynamics. The Dead Sea is a terminal hypersaline lake that accommodates water and sediments from one of the largest drainage areas in the Levant (Neev and Emery, 1967; Stein, 2001; Enzel et al., 2003). Pronounced climatic contrasts characterize the area, expressed by four phytogeographical territories which meet in this highly sensitive region (Zohary, 1995). Additionally, Israel, including the Dead Sea, is part of the Fertile Crescent, where the origins of agriculture and the human impact extend back about 10,000 yr BP (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, 1992).
Among the proxies used for reconstructing paleo-climate of the Holocene, the fluctuations of the Dead Sea lake level are of special importance for this study (Neev and Emery, 1967; Klein and Flohn, 1987; Frumkin et al., 1991; Frumkin, 1997; Ken-Tor et al., 2001a; Klinger et al., 2003; Bookman (Ken-Tor) et al., 2004; Bookman et al., 2006; Migowski et al., 2006). Palynological data about the Holocene are available from cores at the Dead Sea, but thus far the pollen records span maximally 3000 years and 14C datings are rare and often debatable (Baruch, 1990, Baruch, 1993; Heim et al., 1997).
A drilling campaign carried out by GFZ Potsdam and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1997 on the western shore of the Dead Sea recovered eight sediment cores from four sites: Ein Feshkha, Ein Gedi, Ze’elim, and Nahal Hever (Migowski, 2001; Migowski et al., 1999, Migowski et al., 2004, Migowski et al., 2006). Anthropogenically induced rapid retreat of the modern Dead Sea has recently exposed the Ze’elim and Ein Feshkha outcrops (Ken-Tor et al., 2001a), located near to the 1997 drilling sites. The easily accessible outcrops allow lateral correlation and spatial insight. This is an advantage when studying the irregular near shore and shallow lacustrine environment where the occurrence of hiati may lead to problems of interpretation and pollen concentration is often low. The Ze’elim and Ein Feshkha sites represent two distinct depositional environments, allowing us to interpret palynological data in various sedimentological settings. The Ze’elim site is near the fan delta and on the desert fringe, while the Ein Feshkha site is lacustrine and is alongside one of the most extensive springs system that drain the aquifers of the Judean Mountains (Issar, 1993; Rabbo, 2000; Ben-Itzhak and Gvirtzman, 2005).
Section snippets
Geology, tectonic, climate
The Dead Sea is located in the deepest basin of the Dead Sea Transform (DST), which is active since the Neogene (Garfunkel, 1988; Garfunkel and Ben-Avraham, 1996). Frequent earthquakes along the DST have been measured in the past century (Salamon et al., 2003) and recorded historically and archaeologically over the past 4000 years (Ben-Menahem, 1991; Ken-Tor et al., 2001b; Migowski et al., 2004). Deformed lacustrine sediments, attributed to earthquakes, have been investigated in the Lisan
Sampling of the profiles, sediment description, pollen analytical methods
Fieldwork included locating accessible, nearly vertical, and not recently disturbed or deformed outcrops in the gullies. At Ein Feshkha we removed 58 continuous 10 cm long blocks of wet sediment from the current surface plain down to 40 cm below the autumn 2005 water level of the outflow of the Ein Feshkha spring. This 5.85 m long profile (Fig. 5) was described and photographed in detail in the field and when sediment blocks were examined in the laboratory. Samples were wrapped and kept in cold
Lithology of the Ze’elim section
The Ze’elim terraces on the western shore of the Dead Sea are highly sensitive to lake-level fluctuations as shown by a 11 m long composite profile which was constructed by Bookman (Ken-Tor) et al. (2004) using sediment examination and 39 radiocarbon ages from two gullies (Ze’elim A, Ze’elim B). The lake level curve (Fig. 3) reflects the regional hydrologic variations in the drainage basin, which in turn represents the Levant paleoclimates (Bookman (Ken-Tor) et al., 2004). In the current study,
Vegetation and settlement history
Climate is a limiting factor in the surroundings of the Dead Sea and affects the success or collapse of settlement systems (Issar and Zohar, 2004; Migowski et al., 2006). For the first time a direct comparison between vegetation dynamics and climatically triggered lake level fluctuations at two well dated sections at the Dead Sea is possible. Changes in the pollen composition of the sections are caused by:
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Human activity, which has affected the natural vegetation of Palestine through: (1)
Conclusions
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We present a reconstruction of the climate and vegetation history of the late Holocene Dead Sea basin. This was achieved by sedimentological and palynological studies at two sections located in erosion gullies along the western shores of the Dead Sea, Ein Feshkha at the northwestern shore and Ze’elim at the southwestern shore of the Northern basin. Both sections were dated in high resolution by radiocarbon allowing a direct comparison to the available lake level curve of the Holocene Dead Sea.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Revital Bookman for productive discussions at the Ze’elim gully and Eithan Shelef for assistance in the fieldwork, Thomas Litt for offering all facilities at the Institute for Paleontology/Bonn and discussing certain problems of vegetation history and Tania Gross and Sebastian Weber for the preparation of the pollen samples. The manuscript benefited from the reviews of Suzanne Leroy and an anonymous reviewer and from discussions with Avi Shmida, Dafna Kadosh and Wolfgang Zwickel about
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Current address: Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, Republic of South Africa.