Multi-proxy sedimentary records of dry-wet climate cycles during the last 2 ka from lake Çildir, east Anatolian Plateau, Turkey

Abstract

Multi-proxy analyses together with AMS radiocarbon dating of sedimentary organic carbon of a sediment core from Lake Çıldır, NE Turkey was carried out to study temporal changes in climate over the last two millennia. The lake is characterized by very fine to coarse silt-sized, carbonate-free sediments deposited at a relatively low sedimentation rate of less than 0.31 mm/yr. Results from element geochemistry, total organic carbon (Corg), and physical properties (gamma density and magnetic susceptibility results testified the occurrence of alternating cycles of drier and wetter climatic periods since about 2.2 ka cal BP. The period from 2166 ± 112 cal BP to the onset of Little Ice Age, including the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, is represented by alternation of warm and wet conditions with intervening relatively low-magnitude dry periods. The cold Little Ice Age period, on the other hand, was dry, with upward decreasing trends of Zr and Ti and Corg as well as relatively low values of Rb/Sr, indicating decreasing chemical weathering intensity in the drainage basin and low organic productivity in the lake.