The unexpectedly short Holocene Humid Period in Northern Arabia

Ina Neugebauer,Kim J Krahn,Anja Schwarz,Philipp Hoelzmann,Anna Pint,Rik Tjallingii,Birgit Plessen,Peter Frenzel,Nadine Dräger,Achim Brauer,Max Engel,Michèle Dinies,Gerd Gleixner,Helmut Brückner,Valérie F Schwab

doi:10.1038/s43247-022-00368-y

Abstract

The early to middle Holocene Humid Period led to a greening of today’s arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt. While this phase is well defined in North Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula, robust evidence from Northern Arabia is lacking. Here we fill this gap with unprecedented annually to sub-decadally resolved proxy data from Tayma, the only known varved lake sediments in Northern Arabia. Based on stable isotopes, micro-facies analyses and varve and radiocarbon dating, we distinguish five phases of lake development and show that the wet phase in Northern Arabia from 8800–7900 years BP is considerably shorter than the commonly defined Holocene Humid Period (~11,000–5500 years BP). Moreover, we find a two century-long peak humidity at times when a centennial-scale dry anomaly around 8200 years BP interrupted the Holocene Humid Period in adjacent regions. The short humid phase possibly favoured Neolithic migrations into Northern Arabia representing a strong human response to environmental changes.

Highlights

The early to middle Holocene Humid Period led to a greening of today’s arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt
Climate models suggest that the African Summer Monsoon (ASM) was the dominant moisture source on the Arabian Peninsula during pluvials[1,12]
Tropical plumes (TPs), i.e. synoptic disturbances conveying water vapour as continuous mid-upper tropospheric cloud bands from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to >15°N, are known to affect Northern Arabia during winter and spring[14,20,21]

Summary

Introduction

The early to middle Holocene Humid Period led to a greening of today’s arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt While this phase is well defined in North Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula, robust evidence from Northern Arabia is lacking. Tropical plumes (TPs), i.e. synoptic disturbances conveying water vapour as continuous mid-upper tropospheric cloud bands from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to >15°N, are known to affect Northern Arabia during winter and spring[14,20,21] Higher frequency of such patterns during past pluvials was suggested to have contributed increased rainfall to the Saharo-Arabian desert[14,22,23], even though their past role as a moisture source remains poorly understood. The entire lack of high-resolution palaeoclimate data from Northern Arabia leads to an inconsistent picture about the timing and magnitude of the HHP for this culturally important corridor to the Middle East, where some lowerresolution lacustrine records have pointed to more humid conditions during the last interglacial (MIS 5) and the early to mid-Holocene[10,17,31–33]

Methods

Results

Conclusion