Mid- to late-Holocene climate change in central Turkey: The Tecer Lake record

Abstract

The mineralogy and grain-size distribution of sediments from Tecer Lake in central Anatolia provides a 6000 year record of mid- to late-Holocene climate trends and events. Correspondences between key measured parameters allow a reconstruction of variations in lake level, evaporation intensity (summer droughts) and humidity (triggering erosion in winter and spring). They also indicate, occasionally, seasonal contrasts (e.g. phases with high winter rainfall). The Tecer sequence is divided into two main periods: (a) the mid-Holocene transition (from sixth to third millennia BP) characterised by the alternation of multicentenial wet and dry phases, and (b) shorter alternations during the last two millennia. During the mid-Holocene transition, intense droughts occur at the end of the sixth, fifth and fourth millennia BP. The characteristics of some climatic phases at Tecer seem specific to the location of the sequence which, when compared with other sites in the eastern Mediterranean, may record variations in the extent of different climatic systems (NE Atlantic, polar, east Mediterranean, Indian monsoon).