Quaternary glaciation in the Mediterranean mountains: a new synthesis

Abstract

The Mediterranean mountains were repeatedly glaciated during the Pleistocene. Glaciers were present in most of the major mountains areas from Morocco in the west to the Black Sea coast of Turkey in the east. Some mountains supported extensive ice caps and ice fields with valley glaciers tens of kilometres long. Other massifs sustained only small-scale ice masses, although this was the exception rather than the norm. Glaciers still exist today and there is evidence that small glaciers were a common sight in many regions during the Little Ice Age. The Mediterranean mountains are important for palaeoclimate research because of their position in the midlatitudes and sensitivity to changes in the climate regimes of adjacent areas including the North Atlantic. These mountains are also important areas of biodiversity and long-term biological change through the Quaternary ice age. All of this provided challenges and opportunities for Palaeolithic societies. This paper reviews the history of the study of glaciation in the Mediterranean mountains from pioneer nineteenth century observations through to the detailed geomorphological mapping and advanced geochronological datasets of recent times. We also review the current state of knowledge to frame the contributions presented in this volume. Lastly, this new synthesis then identifies outstanding research problems and assesses the prospects for new studies of glaciation in the Mediterranean mountains.

Inferring the Demographic History of Inbred Species From Genome-Wide SNP Frequency Data

“…2006; Clark et al . 2009; Hughes and Woodward 2017). Previous work has also placed the timing of domestication for the cabbage morphotype of B. oleracea at approximately 500 years ago (Cheng et al .…”

The glacial history of Greece: a comprehensive review

“…This mass balance can be quantified with empirical equations that link temperature and precipitation at the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) like the one proposed by Ohmura and Boettcher (2018). The glacial record can thus be Table 1 for references compared with modern climate data to generate information on the nature of winter moisture supply and summer temperatures during Pleistocene cold stages (Hughes and Woodward 2017). These data usefully complement the rich body of proxy climate data that has been retrieved from other Mediterranean archives, including lacustrine sediments, Bourcart (1922); Louis (1926) 2.…”

“…These glacial environments, similarly to other mountains in the Mediterranean during glacial episodes, are dynamic landscape systems that are highly responsive to regional or local climate variability, and due to their geographical position in the mid-latitudes, they are very important for palaeoclimate research (Oliva et al 2019;Hughes and Woodward 2017;Tzedakis et al 2004;Regato and Salman 2008;Woodward 2009;Vogiatzakis 2012).…”

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“…Late Pleistocene glaciation in the Iberian Peninsula Late Pleistocene climatic shifts had clear impacts on glaciation of the Southern Europe mountains (Hughes and Woodward, 2017), most of which are fully deglaciated at present (Hughes, 2018). Several mountain ranges of the Iberian Peninsula underwent glaciation during this stage.…”