Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Tertiary–Quaternary Environmental History of the Mediterranean Basin: The Background to Mediterranean Island Environments

  • Chapter
Mediterranean Island Landscapes

Part of the book series: Landscape Series ((LAEC,volume 9))

The Mediterranean Sea was once part of a much larger ocean which encircled the Earth. This was the Tethys Ocean which existed c.200 × 106 years ago and which subsequently diminished in extent due to the convergent movement of the African and Eurasian plates. By c.65 × 106 years ago Tethys had contracted to become the Mediterranean Sea. Since then there have been episodes of drying and flooding, low and high salinity, low and high sea levels, and cold and warmth, as well as volcanic activity and earthquakes. Many of these events are linked with climatic change and/or tectonic activity. This dynamism is reflected in the ecological changes within the sea itself and in its encircling landmasses as well as its many islands. The environment of the last 65 × 106 years has thus been anything but uniform or stable. A particularly turbulent period of environmental change occurred during the last 2 × 106 years, approximating to the Quaternary period. As high latitudes experienced major advances of ice sheets and glaciers interspersed with warm interglacial stages, the Mediterranean Basin experienced substantial temperature changes on a similar cyclical basis. Forests, grasslands and shrublands, with associated fauna, underwent continual reassembly as temperatures rose and fell. As the present interglacial, the Holocene, opened c.12 ×103 years ago, temperatures ameliorated and the ecosystems which characterize the present began to assemble. However, the Holocene is unique insofar as a new agent of environmental change began to transform landscapes. The population of modern humans (Homo sapiens) was expanding from ice-age refugia (Sykes 2001) and appropriating the resources of the Mediterranean Basin first as huntergatherers and later as agriculturalists. The environment and ecosystems of this region hardly had time to reassemble their interglacial characteristics before there was an onslaught by this new, cultural driver of environmental change. This onslaught continues today as agriculture, industry, tourism, pollution, urbanization, rural depopulation and introduced plants and animals exact their tolls. All of these natural and cultural factors have affected the Mediterranean Islands to some degree.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adams, J.M. and Faure, H. (1997) Preliminary vegetation maps of the world since the last glacial maximum: an aid to archaeological understanding. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 623–647.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, H.D. (2003) Response of past and present Mediterranean ecosystems to environmental change. Progress in Physical Geography 27: 359–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Attenborough, D. (1987) The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man. Little Brown: Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertoldi, R., Rio, D. and Thunell, R. (1989) Pliocene-Pleistocene vegetational and climatic evolution of the south-central Mediterranean. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 72: 263–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Béthoux, J.-P. and Pierre, C. (1999) Mediterranean functioning and sapropel formation: respective influences of climate and hydrological changes in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Marine Geology 153: 29–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blanc, P.-L. (2002) The opening of the Plio-Quaternary Gibraltar strait: assessing the size of a cataclysm. Geodinamica Acta 15: 303–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blondel, J. and Aronson, J. (1999) Biology and wildlife of the Mediterranean region. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bottema, S. and Sarpaki, A. (2003). Environmental change in Crete: a 9000-year record of Holocene vegetation history and the effect of the Santorini eruption. The Holocene 13: 733–749.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bover, P. and Alcover, J.A. (2003) Understanding late Quaternary extinctions: the case of Myotragus balearicus (Bate, 1909). Journal of Biogeography 30: 771–779.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, S., Cheddadi, R., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Reille, M. and Data contributors. (2002) The spread of deciduous Quercus throughout Europe since the last glacial period. Forest Ecology and Management 156: 27–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bucceri, G. et al. (2002) A high resolution record of the last deglaciation in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea: environmental and climatic evolution. Marine Geology 186: 447–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burness, G.P., Diamond, J. and Flannery, T. (2001) Dinosaurs, dragons, and dwarfs: the evolution of maximal body size. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98: 14518–14523.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, R.W.H., McClelland, E. and Jones, R.E. (1999) Calibrating the duration and timing of the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean: linked tectonoclimatic signals in thrust-top basins in Sicily. Journal of the Geological Society 156: 827–835.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duggen, S., Hoernie, K., van den Bogaard, P., Rupke, L. and Phipps Morgan, J. (2003) Deep roots of the Messinian salinity crisis. Nature 422: 602–605.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Elenga, H. et al. (2000) Pollen-based biome reconstruction for southern Europe and Africa 18, 000 yr BP. Journal of Biogeography 27: 621–634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fattorini, S. (2002) Biogeography of the tenebrionid beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) on the Aegean Islands (Greece). Journal of Biogeography 29: 49–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folieri, M., Magri, D. and Sadori, L. (1988) 250, 000-year pollen record from Valle di Castiglione (Roma). Pollen et Spores 30: 329–356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedrich, W.L. (2000) Fire in the sea: volcanism and the natural history of Santorini. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gvirtzman, G. and Wieder, M. (2001) Climate of the last 53, 000 years in the eastern Mediterrannean, based on soil-sequence stratigraphy in the coastal plain of Israel. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 1827–1849.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haug, G.H. et al. (2005) North Pacific seasonality and the glaciation of North America 2.7 million years ago. Nature 433: 821–825.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A., Kucera, M., Kallel, N., Sbaffi, L. and Rohling, E.J. (2005) Glacial Mediterranean sea surface temperatures based on planktonic foraminiferal assemblages. Quaternary Science Reviews 24: 999–1016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, A. (1989) Continuous pollen diagrams for the last 3.5Ma from Israel: vegetation, climate and correlation with the oxygen isotope record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 7: 63–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howell, M.W., Thunell, R.C., Di Stefano, E., Sprovieri, R. Tappa, E.J. and Sakamoto, T. (1998) Stable isotope chronology and paleoceanographic history of sites 963 and 964, Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 160: 167–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, P.D., Woodward, J.C. and Gibbard, P.L. (2006) Quaternary glacial history of the Mediterranean mountains. Progress in Physical Geography 30: 334–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iorio, M., Sagnotti, L., Angelino, A., Budillon, F., D’Argenio, Dinarès-Turell, J., Macri, P. and Marsella, E. (2004) High-resolution petrophysical and palaeomagnetic study of late-Holocene shelf sediments, Salerno Gulf, Tyrrhenian Sea. The Holocene 14: 426–435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, R.G. (2002) Secrets of the Ice Ages: The Role of the Mediterranean Sea in Climate Change. Glenjay Publishing: Minnetonka, MN.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Kaenel, E., Siesser, W.G. and Murat, A. (1998) Pleistocene calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and the Western Mediterranean sapropels, Sites 974 to 977 and 979. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 161: 159–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kallel, N., Duplessy, J.-C., Labeyrie, L., Gasse, F., Fontugne, M. and Paterne, M. (2003) Mediterranean Sea palaeohydrology and pluvial periods during the upper Quaternary. Geophysical Research Abstracts 5: 12417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krijgsman, W., Hilgen, F.J., Raffi, I., Sierro, F.J. and Wilson, D.S. (1999) Chronology, causes and progression of the Messinian salinity crisis. Nature, London 400: 652–655.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kroon, D., Alexander, I., Little, M., Lourens, L.J., Matthewson, A., Robertson, A.H.F. and Sakamoto, T. (1998) Oxygen isotope and sapropel stratigraphy in the Eastern Mediterranean during the last 3.2 million years. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 160: 181–189.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kukla, G.J. et al. (2002) Last interglacial climates. Quaternary Research 58: 2–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawson, I., Frogley, M., Bryant, C., Preece, R. and Tzedakis, P. (2004) The Lateglacial and Holocene history of the Ioannina basin, north-west Greece. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 1599–1625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, J.J. and Walker, M.J.C. (1997) Reconstrucing Quaternary Environments. Longman: Harlow, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magri, D. (1989) Interpreting long-term exponential growth of plant populations in a 250, 000-year pollen record from Valle di Castiglione (Roma). New Phytologist 112: 123–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mannion, A.M. (1997) Global Environmental Change, 2nd edn. Longman: Harlow, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mannion, A.M. (1999) Natural Environmental Change. Routledge: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Masseti, M. (1995) Quaternary biogeography of the mustelid family on the Mediterranean Islands. Hystrix 7: 17–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mommersteeg, H.J.P.M., Loutre, M.F., Young, R. Wijmstra, T.A. and Hooghiemstra, H. (1995) Orbital forced frequencies in the 975, 000 year pollen record from Tenaghi Philippon (Greece). Climate Dynamics 11: 4–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nebout, N.C., Londeix, L., Baudin, F., Turon, J.-L., von Grafenstein, R. and Zahn, R. (1999) Quaternary marine and continental paleoenvironments in the Western Mediterranean (site 976, Alboran Sea): palynological evidence. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 161: 457–468.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, K.A., Clemmensen, L.B. and Fornós, J.J. (2004) Middle Pleistocene magnetostratigraphy and susceptibility stratigraphy; data from a carbonate Aeolian system, Mallorca, Western Mediterranean. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 1733–1756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okuda, M., Yasuda, Y. and Setoguchi, T. (2001) Middle to late Pleistocene vegetation history and climatic changes at Lake Kopais, southeast Greece. Boreas 30: 73–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, M., Pons, G.X., Cambefort, I. and Alcover, J.A. (1999) Historical processes and environmental factors as determinants of inter-island differences in endemic faunas: the case of the Balearic Islands. Journal of Biogeography 26: 813–823.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palombo, M.R. (2003) Elephas? Mammuthus? Loxodonta? The question of the true ancestor of the smallest dwarfed elephant of Sicily. In J.W.F. Reumer, J. De Vos and D. Mol (eds.) Advances in Mammoth Research. Deinsea 9, 273–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petit, R.J. et al. (2002) Identification of refugia and post-glacial colonisation routes of European white oaks based on chloroplast DNA and fossil pollen evidence. Forest Ecology and Management 156: 49–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petit, R.J. et al. (2003) Glacial refugia: hotspots but not melting pots of genetic diversity. Science 300: 1563–1565.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Poulakakis, N., Mylonas, M., Lymberakis, P. and Fassoulas, C. (2002) Origin and taxonomy of the fossil elephants of the island of Crete (Greece): problems and perspectives. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 186: 163–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ray, N. and Adams, J.M. (2001) A GIS-based vegetation map of the world at the last glacial maximum (25, 000–15, 000 BP). Internet Archaeology 11 (http://intarch.ac.uk/).

  • Reille, M. and de Beaulieu, J.-L. (1995) Long Pleistocene pollen records from the Praclaux Crater, south-central France. Quaternary Research 44: 205–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reille, M., Andrieu, V., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Guenet, P., Goeury, C. (1988) A long pollen record from Lac du Bouchet, Massif central, France for the period 325 to 100 ka (OIS 9c to OIS 5e). Quaternary Science Reviews 17: 1107–1123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reille, M., Gamisans, M.J., de Beaulieu, J.J.-L, and Andrieu, V. (1997) The late-glacial at Lac de Creno (Corsica, France): a key site in the Western Mediterranean Basin. New Phytologist 153, 547–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reille, M., Gamisans, V., Andrieu-Ponel, V. and de Beaulieu, J.-L. (1999) The Holocene at Lac de Creno, Corsica, France: a key site for the whole island. New Phytologist 141: 291–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, J., Meng, X. and Watson, C. (1999) Palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental responses in the Western Mediterranean over the last 140 ka: evidence from Mallorca, Spain. Journal of the Geological Society 156: 435–448.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rossignol-Strick, M. (1999) The Holocene climatic optimum and pollen records of sapropel 1 in the Eastern Mediterranean, 9000–6000 BP. Quaternary Science Reviews 18: 515–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadori, L. and Narcisi, B. (2001) The postglacial record of environmental history from Lago di Pergusa, Sicily. The Holocene 11: 655–670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sbaffi, L., Wezel, F.C., Curzi, G. and Zoppi, U. (2004) Millennial- to centennial-scale palaeoclimate variations during Termination I and the Holocene in the central Mediterranean Sea. Global and Planetary Change 40: 201–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton, N.J. et al. (1984) Oxygen isotope calibration of the onset of ice-rafting and history of glaciation in the North Atlantic region. Nature, London, 307: 620–623.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Spezzaferri, S., Cita, M.B. and McKenzie, J.A. (1998) The Miocene/Pliocene boundary in the Eastern Mediterranean: results from sites 967 and 969. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Programme Scientific Results 160: 9–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sprovieri, R., Di Stefano, E., Incarbona, A., Gargano, M.E. (2003) A high-resolution record of the last deglaciation in the Sicily Channel based on foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil quantitative distribution. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 202: 119–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suc, J.-P. (1984) Origin and evolution of the Mediterranean vegetation and climate in Europe. Nature, London, 307: 429–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suc, J.P., Drivaliari, A., Bessais, E., Guiot, J., Bertini, A., Leroy, S., Cheddadi, R., Ferrier, J. and Duzer, D. (1994) Mediterranean Pliocene vegetation and climate: how to quantify the climate parameters? United States Geological Survey (USGS) Open-File Report 94–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sykes, B. (2001) The Seven Daughters of Eve. Bantam Press: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tzedakis, P.C. (1993) Long-term tree populations in northwest Greece through multiple quaternary climatic cycles. Nature 364: 437–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tzedakis, P.C. (1999) The last climatic cycle at Kopais, central Greece. Journal of the Geological Society of London 156: 425–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tzedakis, P.C., Andrieu, V., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Crowhurst, S., Follieri, M., Hooghiemstra, H., Magri, D., Reille, M., Sadori, L., Shackleton, N.J. and Wijmstra, T.A. (1997) Comparison of terrestrial and marine records of changing climate of the last 500, 000 years. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 150: 171–176.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tzedakis, P.C., Andrieu, V., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Crowhurst, S., Follieri, M., Hooghiemstra, H., Magri, D., Reille, M., Sadori, L., Shackleton, N.J. and Wijmstra, T.A. (2001) Establishing a terrestrial chronological framework as a basis for biostratigraphical comparisons. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 1583–1592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tzedakis, P.C., Frogley, M.R. and Heaton, T.H.E. (2003) Last interglacial conditions in southern Europe: evidence from Ioannina, northwest Greece. Global and Planetary Change 36: 157–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tzedakis, P.C., McManus, J.F., Hooghiemstra, H., Oppo, D.W. and Wijmstra, T.A. (2003) Comparison of changes in vegetation in northeast Greece with records of climate variability on orbital and suborbital frequencies over the last 450, 000 years. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 212: 197–212.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van Couvering, J.A. (ed.) (2004) The Pleistocene Boundary and the Beginning of the Quaternary. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vesica, P.L., Tuccimei, P., Turi, B., Fornos, J.J., Gines, A. and Gines, J. (2000) Late Pleistocene paleoclimates and sea-level change in the Mediterranean as inferred from stable isotope and U-series studies of overgrowths on speleothems, Mallorca, Spain.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warny, S.A., Bart, P.J. and Suc, J.-P. (2003) Timing and progression of climatic, tectonic and glacioeustatic influences on the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 202: 59–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yll, E.-I., Perez-Obiol, R., Pantaleon-Cano, J. and Roure, J.M. (1997) Palynological evidence for climatic change and human activity during the Holocene on Minorca (Balearic Islands). Quaternary Research 48: 339–347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Reading, RG6 6AB, Reading, UK

    A. M. Mannion

Authors
  1. A. M. Mannion
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture Policy and Development, University of Reading, RG6 6AR, Reading, UK

    Ioannis Vogiatzakis

  2. CCLP & University of Cambridge, UK

    G. Pungetti

  3. University of Reading, RG6 6AB, Reading, UK

    A. M. Mannion

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mannion, A.M. (2008). The Tertiary–Quaternary Environmental History of the Mediterranean Basin: The Background to Mediterranean Island Environments. In: Vogiatzakis, I., Pungetti, G., Mannion, A.M. (eds) Mediterranean Island Landscapes. Landscape Series, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5064-0_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation