Late Holocene embayment infill and shoreline migration, Haifa Bay, Eastern Mediterranean

Porat, Naomi; Sivan, Dorit; Zviely, Dov

doi:10.1560/ijes.57.1.21

Cited by 39 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…In these areas the coastline reached about 1 km inland at about 4 ka (Raban and Galili, 1985), and progradated to its current position at about 3 ka. These late Holocene embayments resemble, on a smaller scale, those described in Haifa Bay and the Zevulun Plain ( Fig.1; Zviely et al, 2006;Porat et al, 2008;Elyashiv et al, 2016). From 6 to 4 ka, a sequence of bioclastic sand 1 to 3 m thick was deposited along most of Israel's coastal cliff.…”

Section: Evolution Of the Coastal Plain Of Israel During The Late Quasupporting

confidence: 52%

New perspectives on coastal landscape reconstruction during the Late Quaternary: A test case from central Israel

Shtienberg

Dix

Roskin

et al. 2017

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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The stratigraphic architecture of coastal plains is determined by the interactions between local (e.g. fluvial processes and topography), regional (e.g. climate) and global (e.g. sea level) forcing factors, primarily during the Late Quaternary Period. Detailed stratigraphic and sedimentological analyses of boreholes, cored between coastal ridges in the lowlands, coupled with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, and integrated with existing onshore and offshore databases, has enabled a 4-D reconstruction of the evolution of the coast of Israel during the last glacial-interglacial cycle. This model revealed that Nilotic-sourced littoral sand, intermittently transported inland by wind, has either been lithified into aeolianite or pedogenized into orange-brown palaeosol from about 100 ka to 8 ka. Dark silty clay wetlands were deposited between the aeolian coastal ridges adjacent to streams which cut the Israeli coastal plain and flow westward, from the Last Glacial Maximum until the onset of the Holocene. These units are topped by beach and aeolian quartz sand dated to 6.6-0.1 ka. Diachronous thicknesses and lithological dissimilarities were identified between the sections studied and previous reports on adjacent coastal aeolianite ridges. Streams were found to be a dominant control on the stratigraphical composition and related facies architecture due to fluvial-induced erosion. Consequently, the relief variations between the lowland and cliff controlled aeolian pedogenesis as well as alluvial processes from about 80 to 5 ka. Climate, mainly influenced by precipitation and dust input, induced pedogenic processes; while sea level lowstand during the Last Glacial Maximum is shown to have hindered sediment deposition in the shallow offshore, which in turn affected aeolian transport, reducing sediment accumulation on the palaeo-coastal plain. The palaeoenvironmental model presented in the current study serves as an example for understanding the evolution of similar low-latitude siliciclastic-rich low-gradient shelf-coastal areas during the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Furthermore, it demonstrates the influence of local to global forcing factors on these environments.

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Section: Evolution Of the Coastal Plain Of Israel During The Late Quasupporting

confidence: 52%

New perspectives on coastal landscape reconstruction during the Late Quaternary: A test case from central Israel

Shtienberg

Dix

Roskin

et al. 2017

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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“…The predicted maximum value for the year 2100 in the EM is 60 cm higher than the 1990 value, providing an analogue with Haifa Bay where the sea transgressed eastwards (>2.5 km) and flooded the Zevulum Plain (Fig. 1) [28]–[29]. Regardless of the physical mechanisms responsible for the sea ingression on the Zevulum Plain and the local influence of the hydro-sedimentary budget from the Na’aman River [28], the added pressure of the sea invasion between 4000 and 2900 cal yr BP on ecosystem dynamics already affected by human activity and climate stress, led to a deep ecological erosion (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Vulnerability of Mediterranean Ecosystems to Long-Term Changes along the Coast of Israel

et al. 2014

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Although human activity is considered to be a major driving force affecting the distribution and dynamics of Mediterranean ecosystems, the full consequences of projected climate variability and relative sea-level changes on fragile coastal ecosystems for the next century are still unknown. It is unclear how these waterfront ecosystems can be sustained, as well as the services they provide, when relative sea-level rise and global warming are expected to exert even greater pressures in the near future (drought, habitat degradation and accelerated shoreline retreat). Haifa Bay, northern Israel, has recorded a landward sea invasion, with a maximum sea penetration 4,000 years ago, during an important period of urban development and climate instability. Here, we examine the cumulative pressure of climate shifts and relative sea-level changes in order to investigate the patterns and mechanisms behind forest replacement by an open-steppe. We provide a first comprehensive and integrative study for the southern Levant that shows that (i) human impact, through urbanization, has been the main driver behind ecological erosion in the past 4,000 years; (ii) climate pressures have reinforced this impact; and (iii) local coastal changes have played a decisive role in eroding ecosystem resilience. These three parameters, which have closely interacted during the last 4,000 years in Haifa Bay, clearly indicate that for an efficient management of the coastal habitats, anthropogenic pressures linked to urban development must be reduced in order to mitigate the predicted effects of Global Change.

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“…Between AK 5 and AK‐XV‐3, the sand accumulation seems to have been relatively modest during the Middle Bronze Age, illustrating a difference with the aggradation rates measured by Porat et al. () in the center of the bay. In fact, they show that the central Zevulun plain has prograded at an average rate of 40–50 cm/year since 4000 B.P.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…After the stabilization of relative sea‐level around 3,650 years B.P. (Porat, Sivan, & Zviely, ), coastal progradation resulted from the combined action of fluvial, aeolian, and marine sediment inputs. In fact, (a) the bay drains the water of two coastal rivers, the Kishon River to the south and the Na'aman River to the north that transport sediments to the plain, particularly during floods in a similar manner to present‐day flood events (Vachtman, Sandler, Greenbaum, & Herut, ).…”

Section: Geomorphological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geoarchaeological investigations at Akko, Israel: New insights into landscape changes and related anchorage locations since the Bronze Age

et al. 2018

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Since the first archaeological excavations undertaken in the 1970s/1980s, Tel Akko is known to have been an important trade city from the early 2nd millennium B.C. onwards. Even if the site has been intensively excavated, no paleoenvironmental studies looking to understand coastal changes near the tell since the Bronze Age had been undertaken until recently. Our research is based on the study of sediment cores drilled at the foot of the tell and in the Old City of Akko, 1,500 m west of the tell. We validate the coastal changes, already proposed by previous studies, while clarifying the chronology of these changes. We propose that the southern anchorage was located in the river mouth of the Na'aman until the early Persian period. This anchorage shifted to the “open” western coast of the tell during the Persian period before its subsequent relocation to the rocky promontory of Akko in Hellenistic times. We attempted to locate the Hellenistic harbor of Akko by coring in the Old City, in proximity to the modern harbor. At that time, a harbor lay in a semi‐protected pocket beach at the foot of the promontory.

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Late Holocene embayment infill and shoreline migration, Haifa Bay, Eastern Mediterranean

Cited by 39 publications

References 31 publications

New perspectives on coastal landscape reconstruction during the Late Quaternary: A test case from central Israel

New perspectives on coastal landscape reconstruction during the Late Quaternary: A test case from central Israel

Vulnerability of Mediterranean Ecosystems to Long-Term Changes along the Coast of Israel

Geoarchaeological investigations at Akko, Israel: New insights into landscape changes and related anchorage locations since the Bronze Age

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