Palaeovegetational and Palaeoclimatic Changes During the Early Miocene in Central Taurus, Turkey

Year 2017, Volume: 38 Issue: 1, 101 - 114, 09.04.2017

Demet Biltekin

Abstract

This study presents palynological records from the Ermenek Basin during the Early Miocene to evaluate paleoenvironmental
changes. The pollen spectra was dominated by coniferous trees during this time period. Especially, Cedrus was abundant in
Ermenek flora and cedars occupied on the mountain areas with Abies and Picea, indicating cooler climate in the area. However,
an increase in mega-mesothermic trees, mainly Taxodiaceae swamps show that the climate slightly turned to warmer and humid
conditions at the uppermost part of the Ermenek section. The low occurrence of herbeceous taxa imply that the vegetation cover
was mainly forest.

Keywords

Ermenek, flora, paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, pollen grains

References

• Akgün, F., and Sözbilir, H., 2001. A palynostratigraphic approach to the SW Anatolian molasse basin: Kale–Tavas molasse and Denizli molasse. Geodinamica Acta, 14, 71–93
• Akgün, F., Kayseri, M.S., Akkiraz, M.S., 2007. Palaeoclimatic evolution and vegetational changes during the Late Oligocene–Miocene period in the Western and Central Anatolia (Turkey). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 253, 56–106
• Akkiraz, M.S., Akgün, F., Utescher, T., Bruch, A.A., Mosbrugger, V., 2011. Precipitation gradients during the Miocene in Western and Central Turkey as quantified from pollen data. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 304, 276–290
• Akman, Y., Quézel, P., Ketenoglu, O., Kurt, F., 1993. Analyse syntaxonomique des forêts de Liquidambar orientalis en Turquie. Ecologia Mediterranea, 19, 49–57.
• Becker-Platen, J.D., Benda, L., Sickenberg, O., Tobien, H., 1974. Saugerfaunen und NeogenStratigraphie in Zentral- und West-Anatolien (Türkei). Memoires du B.R.G.M. 81–88.
• Becker-Platen, J.D., Benda, L., Steffens, P., 1977. Litho- und biostratigraphische Deutung radiometrischer Altersbestimmingun aus dem Jungtertiar der Türkei. Geologische Jahrbuch B25, 139–167
• Billups, K., Channell, J. E. T., Zachos, J., 2002. Late Oligocene to Early Miocene geochronology and paleoceanography from the subantarctic South Atlantic. Paleoceanography, 17, 1,1004
• Biltekin, D., Popescu, S.M., Suc, J.P., Quézel, P., Jiménez- Moreno, G., Yavuz, N., and Çağatay, M.N., 2015. Anatolia: a long-time plant refuge area documented by pollen records over the last 23 million years. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 215, 1–22
• Blokhina, N. I., 1998. Fossil wood of Cedrus (Pinaceae) from the Paleogene of Kamchatka. Paleontological Journal, 32, 532–538
• Blokhina, N. I., 2005. Fossil wood from the Paleogene of Russian Far East. XVII International Botanical Congress – Abstract 6.6.2 (P99).
• Blokhina, N. I., Afonin, M. A., 2007. Fossil wood Cedrus penzhinaensis sp. Nov. (Pinaceae) from the Lower Cretaceous of north-western Kamchatka (Russia). Acta Palaeobotanica, 47, 2, 379-389.
• Cour, P., 1974. Nouvelles techniques de détection des flux et de retombées polliniques: etude de la sédimentation des pollens et des spores à la surface du sol. Pollen et Spores, 16, 1, 103-141
• Demirel, I.H., 2004. Petroleum systems in the eastern and central Taurus region, Turkey. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 21, 1061–1071
• Grimm, E.C., 1987. CONISS: a Fortran 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers and Geosciences, 13, 13–35.
• Grimm, E., 1994. TILIA and TILIAGRAPH pollen diagramming program. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL
• Huang, T.C., 1972. Pollen flora of Taiwan. (Taipei) National Taiwan University, Botany Department Press.
• Ilgar, A., Nemec, W., 2005. Early Miocene lacustrine deposits and sequence stratigraphy of the Ermenek Basin, Central Taurides, Turkey. Sedimentary Geology, 173, 233–275.
• Jiménez-Moreno, G., Popescu, S.-M., Ivanov, D., Suc, J.-P., 2007. Neogene flora, vegetation and climate dynamics in Central Eastern Europe according to pollen records. In: Williams, M., Haywood, A., Gregory, J., Schmidt, D.N. (Eds.), Deep-Time Perspectives on Climate Change. Marrying the Signal fro 393–406
• Jiménez-Moreno, G., Alçiçek, H., Alçiçek, C.M., van den Hoek Ostende, L., Wesselingh, F.P., 2015. Vegetation and climate changes during the late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene in SW Anatolia, Turkey. Quaternary Research, 84, 448–456.
• Kayseri-Özer, M.S., 2014. Spatial distribution of climatic conditions from the Middle Eocene to Late Miocene based on palynoflora in Central, Eastern and Western Anatolia. Geodinamica Acta, 26, 122–157.
• Koç, A., Kaymakci, N., van Hinsbergen, D.J.J., Kuiper, K.F., Vissers, R.L.M., 2012. TectonoSedimentary evolution and geochronology of the Middle Miocene Altınapa Basin, and implications for the Late Cenozoic uplift history of the Taurides, southern Turkey. Tectonophysics, 532–535, 134–155.
• Liu, Y.S., Zetter, R. and Fergusson, D.K., 1997. Fossil pollen grains of Cathaya (Pinaceae) in the Miocene of eastern China. Mededelingen Nederlands Instituut Voor Toegepaste Geowetenschappen, 58, 227–235
• Miller, K. G., Feigenson, M., Wright, J. D. and Clement, B., 1991. Miocene isotope reference section, Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 608: an evaluation of isotope and biostratigraphic resolution. Palaeoceanography, 6, 33–5
• Nix, H., 1982. Environmental determinants of biogeography and evolution in Terra Australis. In: Barker, W.R., Greenslade, P.J.M. (Eds.), Evolution of the Flora and fauna of Arid Australia. Peacock Publishing.
• Özgül, N., 1976. Torosların bazı temel jeoloji özellikleri. ulletin of Geological Society, Turkey, 19, 65-78.
• Pagani, M., Arthur, M. A. and Freeman, K. H., 1999. Miocene evolution of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Paleoceanography, 14, 3, 273-292.
• Potter, P.E., Szatmari, P., 2009. Global Miocene tectonics and the modern World. Earth-Science Reviews, 96, 279–295.
• Reille M., 1992. Pollen et spores d’Europe et d’Afrique du Nord. Laboratoire de botanique historique et de palynologie, Marseille, France.
• Reille M., 1995. Pollen et spores d’Europe et d’Afrique du Nord. Laboratoire de botanique historique et de palynologie-Supplément 1, Marseille,France.
• Reille M., 1998. Pollen et spores d’Europe et d’Afrique du Nord. Laboratoire de botanique historique et de palynologie-Supplément 2, Marseille, France.
• Qiao, C.Y., Ran, J.H., Li, Y. and Wang, X.Q., 2007. Phylogeny and Biogeography of Cedrus (Pinaceae) Inferred from Sequences of Seven Paternal Chloroplast and Maternal Mitochondrial DNA Regions. Annals of Botany, 100, 573–580.
• Quézel, P., and Barbero, M., 1985. Carte de la végétiation potentielle de la région méditerranéenne. Feuille n° 1: Méditerranée orientale. Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
• Quézel, P., and Médail, F., 2003. Ecologie et biogéographie des forêts du bassin méditerranéen. Elsevier, Paris.
• Suc, J.P., 1984. Origin and evolution of the Mediterranean vegetation and climate in Europe. Nature, 307, 5950, 429-432.
• Suc, J.P., Popescu, S.M., 2005. Pollen records and climatic cycles in the North Mediterranean region since 2.7 Ma. Geological Society London Special Publications, 247, 147–158.
• Uchman, A., Nemec, W., Ilgar, A., Messina, C., 2007. Lacustrine Trace Fossils and Environmental Conditions in the Early Miocene Ermenek Basin, Southern Turkey. Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 77, 123–139.
• Üçbaş Durak, S.D. and Akkiraz, M.S., 2016. Late Oligocene–Early Miocene palaeoecology based on pollen data from the Kalkım-Gönen Basin (Northwest Turkey). Geodinamica Acta, 28, 4, 295–310.
• Wang, C.W., 1961. The forests of China with a survey of grassland and desert vegetation.Maria Moors Cabot Fundation, vol. 5. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachussets.
• Yavuz-Işık, N., 2007. Pollen analysis of coal-bearing Miocene sedimentary rocks from the Seyitömer Basin (Kütahya), Western Anatolia. Geobios, 40, 701–708.
• Yavuz-Işık, N., 2008. Vegetation and climatic investigations in the Early Miocene lacustrine deposits of the Güvem Basin (Galatean Volcanic Province), NW Central Anatolia, Turkey. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 150, 130–139.
• Yavuz-Işık, N., Toprak, V., 2010. Palynostratigraphy and vegetation characteristics of Neogene continental deposits interbedded with the Cappodocia ignimbrites (Central Anatolia, Turkey). International Journal of Earth Sciences, 99, 1887–1897.
• Yavuz, N., Culha, G., Demirer, S.S., Utescher, T., Aydın, A., 2017. Pollen, ostracod and stable isotope records of palaeoenvironment and climate: Upper Miocene and Pliocene of the Çankırı Basin (Central Anatolia, Turkey). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Volume 467, 149–165.
• Yi, T., Miller, A.J., Wen, J., 2004. Phylogenetic and biogeographic diversification of Rhus (Anacardiaceae)in the Northern Hemisphere. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 33, 861–879.
• Zachos, J., Pagani, M., Sloan, L. and Billups, K., 2001. Trends, rhythms, and aberrations in global climate 65 Ma to present. Science, 292, 686–693