ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 5397
Session = 4.10.2


NEOGENE VEGETATION AND CLIMATE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION


Jean-Pierre Suc, Centre de Paléontologie Université Lyon 1 F 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France


More than 200 chronologically well calibrated pollen localities document:-the presence at 24 Ma of a mangrove (Avicennia) in the NW Mediterranean region, which disappeared at the climatic break which occurred at 14 Ma and persisted in the S Mediterranean region up to 5.32 Ma, - the lack of any climatic change to explain the Messinian salinity crisis (5.8-5.32 Ma), in the S Mediterranean region, the climatic conditions were warm and xeric (as today in Red Sea area) before, during and after the crisis, the Antarctic glacials (5.8-5.7 Ma) are weakly marked, - the climatic changes that occurred between 5.32 and 2.6 Ma in relation with the onset and the extent of the Arctic ice sheet are clearly recorded in the N Mediterranean region (development of open vegetation), weakly in the S Mediterranean region, - the earliest glacial-interglacial cycles (2.6 Ma) are well documented (Artemisia steppe-eciduous forest alternations) in the N and Central Mediterranean regions. Richness in data provide fitness for climate quantifying and paleovegetation mapping.


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