Palaeoenvironments of early hominins in temperate and Mediterranean Eurasia: new palaeobotanical data from Palaeolithic key-sites and synchronous natural sequences

The present study focuses on new palaeobotanical data (pollen, phytoliths and fruits) from three of the oldest Early Palaeolithic sites in Eurasia (Dmanisi in Georgia, Ca’ Belvedere di Monte Poggiolo in Italy and Pont-de-Lavaud in France). The main aim is to examine the ecological factors associated with the first human dispersals out of Africa into Eurasia. The palaeoecological data are discussed with regards to chronology and geographical location of the settlements. The vegetation pattern of each site consists of temperate Eurasian and Mediterranean taxa, subtropical trees being more or less recorded depending on climatic and geographic features. The new palaeobotanical data show that different vegetation structures occurred between the first human dispersal in Caucasus and the later dispersals in western Eurasia. However, in all cases hominins seemed to be adapted to temperate ecosystems. In Caucasus, human occupation took place at 1.7 Ma in a forest-steppe environment, while at ca 1 Ma human populations occupied various settings such as open landscapes or dense forests. These data suggest that during the Early Pleistocene, human populations evolved and dispersed in western Eurasia, gradually increasing their degree of adaptation to diversified environments.     

Mid-latitude Southern Indian Ocean response to Northern Hemisphere Heinrich events

The lack of temporal resolution and accurate chronology of Southern Ocean marine cores has hampered comparison of glacial millennial-scale oscillations between the Southern Ocean, Antarctic ice and other records from both hemispheres. In this study, glacial climate variability is investigated over the last 50 ka using a multi-proxy approach. A precise chrono-stratigraphy was developed on the high-sedimentation rate core MD94-103 (Indian Southern Ocean, 45°35′S 86°31′E, 3560 m water depth) by geomagnetic synchronization between the later core and NAPIS75, and ¹⁴C dates. High-resolution time-series of δ¹⁸O in planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma, and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) estimated from the alkenone U^K′₃₇ index and foraminifera assemblages have been generated. Temporal evolution of the two temperature proxy records is notably different during the last glacial period. While foraminifera data indicate a consistent cooling towards the last glacial maximum, anomalous warm glacial alkenone temperatures suggest a strong advection of warm “detrital” alkenones by surface waters of the Agulhas current. Superimposed to this general trend, during Heinrich events, foraminiferal SSTs point to warmer surface waters, while concurrent alkenone SSTs exhibit apparent coolings probably caused by enhanced local alkenone production. By analogy to modern observations, possible influence of ENSO-like conditions on the subantarctic Southern Ocean SSTs is discussed.     

Total organic carbon fluxes of the Red River system (Vietnam)

Riverine transport of organic carbon from terrestrial ecosystems to the oceans plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. The Red River is located in Southeast Asia where river discharge, sediment loads and fluxes of elements (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) associated with suspended solids have been dramatically altered over past decades as a result of reservoir impoundment and land use, population, and climate change. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) concentrations were measured monthly at four stations of the Red River system from January 2008 to December 2010. The results reveal that POC changed synchronically with total suspended solids (TSS) concentration and with the river discharge, whereas no clear trend was observed for DOC concentration. The mean value of total organic carbon (TOC = DOC + POC) flux in the delta of the Red River was 31.5 × 10¹³ ± 4.0 × 10¹³ MgC.yr^?1 (range 27.9–35.8 × 10¹³ MgC.yr^?1 which leads to a specific TOC flux of 2012 ± 255 kgC.km^?2.yr^?1 during this 2008–2010 period. About 80% of the TOC flux was transferred to the estuary during the rainy season as a consequence of the higher river water discharge. The high mean value of the POC:Chl‐a ratio (1585 ± 870 mgC.mgChl‐a^?1) and the moderate C:N ratio (7.3 ± 0.1) in the water column system suggest that organic carbon in the Red River system is mainly derived from erosion and soil leaching in the basin. The effect of two new dam impoundments in the Red River was also observable with lower TOC fluxes in 2010 compared with 2008. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Last glacial fire regime variability in western France inferred from microcharcoal preserved in core MD04-2845, Bay of Biscay

High resolution multiproxy analysis (microcharcoal, pollen, organic carbon, Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (s), ice rafted debris) of the deep-sea record MD04-2845 (Bay of Biscay) provides new insights for understanding mechanisms of fire regime variability of the last glacial period in western France. Fire regime of western France closely follows Dansgaard–Oeschger climatic variability and presents the same pattern than that of southwestern Iberia, namely low fire regime associated with open vegetation during stadials including Heinrich events, and high fire regime associated with open forest during interstadials. This supports a regional climatic control on fire regime for western Europe through fuel availability for the last glacial period. Additionally, each of Heinrich events 6, 5 and 4 is characterised by three episodes of fire regime, with a high regime bracketed by lower fire regime episodes, related to vegetational succession and complex environmental condition changes.     

Modeling the response of water quality in the Seine River estuary to human activity in its watershed over the last 50 years

The unique database of water quality measurements made in the Seine estuary over 45 years by the Service de la Navigation de la Seine at Rouen is used here to reconstruct the evolution of oxygen status in the estuary and the nutrient fluxes to the Seine Bight during the last half century. The Riverstrahler model is used to establish the link between these long-term trends in the functioning of the Seine system and the evolution of agricultural, domestic, and industrial activity in the watershed over this period taking into account natural and man-induced hydrological variations. Oxygenation of the fluvial sector below Paris has increased considerably owing to improved wastewater treatment, but a large part of the estuary remains completely anoxic during the spring and summer months. Nitrogen input to surface waters from urban sources has remained essentially constant while diffuse inputs from agricultural soils have increased 5-fold as a result of more intensive agricultural practices as well as the loss of retention capacity in riparian zones. Phosphorus inputs from domestic and industrial sources increased 3-fold from 1950 to 1980, but have decreased gradually in recent years. The generally high level of phosphorus contamination has favored strong algal development in all large tributaries of the Seine River upstream of paris since the 1960s. Silica inputs, originating mainly from the weathering of rocks, fluctuate widely depending on hydrology. In-stream retention of silica, linked to diatom blooms, has increased but remains limited. These changes have induced several shifts in the nutrient limitation conditions of the Seine Bight.     

Sea-level estimates during the last deglaciation based on δO and accelerator mass spectrometry C ages measured in Globigerina bulloides

Coupled measurements of δ¹⁸O and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C in a particular species of planktonic foraminifera may be used to calculate sea-level estimates for the last deglaciation. Of critical importance for this type of study is a knowledge of the seasonality of foraminiferal growth, which can be provided by δ¹⁸O measurements of modern shells (core tops, plankton tows). Isotopic (δ¹⁸O, AMS-¹⁴C dating) and faunal records (transfer function sea surface temperature) were obtained from two cores in the North Atlantic at about 37°N. The locations were chosen to obtain high sedimentation rate records removed from the major ice-melt discharge areas of the last deglaciation. Based upon Globigerina bulloides data, four δ¹⁸O-based sea-level estimates were calculated: −67 ± 7 m at 12,200 yr B.P. and −24 ± 8 m at about 8200 yr B.P. for core SU 81-18; −83 ± 10 m at 12,200 yr B.P. and −13 ± 11 m at about 8500 yr B.P. for core SU 81-14. Using a second working hypothesis concerning the seasonability of G. bulloides growth, it is suggested that the sea-level rose by about 40 m during the millennium which followed 14,500 yr B.P.     

A report card and quality indicators for the Seine estuary: from scientific approach to operational tool

The scientific teams from the interdisciplinary Seine-Aval (SA) research program and the SA's operational pole, GIPSA (Groupement d'Intérêt Public Seine-Aval) have worked together to create a report card designed to help the Estuary Council (Conseil de l'Estuaire) revitalize its original functions: maintaining functional links between the various estuarine ecosystems, comprehending and managing the estuary's natural habitats and biological populations, and monitoring and improving the physical-chemical quality of the estuarine waters. The report card will be able to synthesize the information obtained from several system performance variables and available operational indicators. This approach, intended to guide the estuary managers, is the oeuvre of several scientific teams; it is particularly important in the context of the Water Framework Directive because it facilitates the elaboration of a group of relevant indicators, which can then be used as operational tools. A report card will provide decision-makers (e.g., political authorities; national, regional and local institutions and industries) with the key indicators for evaluating the system and predicting changes in terms of selected objectives, such as the preservation and restoration of the estuary's environmental functionalities. The final objective of the research is to choose among the available indicators to approximate potential ecological risks. Integrating the socio-economical data will perhaps lead to setting risk acceptability thresholds for the different uses of the Seine estuary. In the end, collaboration between the scientists, the managers, and the GIPSA operational pole will be essential to produce a viable report card about the environmental status of the Seine estuary. To illustrate the research now under way, this article presents the results for three actions undertaken, concerning: (i) physical indicators (i.e., an inventory of the estuary first as a whole, and then section by section); (ii) benthic indicators (i.e., seven indices which show a moderate EcoQ for the lower part of the estuary); and (iii) a eutrophication indicator (i.e., an indicator for coastal eutrophication potential (ICEP), which helps to limit the nutrient fluxes (N or P) that exceed the silica flux delivered by the Seine network, based on the Redfield ratios for algal propagation).     

Organic matter dynamics and budgets in the turbidity maximum zone of the Seine Estuary (France)

Organic matter was studied in the turbidity maximum zone (TMZ) of the Seine Estuary during 8 tidal cycles from April to October in 2001, 2002 and 2003, covering a salinity range from 0 to 27. The hydrological conditions were quite varied (extremely wet in 2001, unusually dry in 2003). A particularly striking feature is the high organic matter content in the suspended solids (SS) of the Seine estuary (4–5%).     

Low-latitude “dusty events” vs. high-latitude “icy Heinrich events”

It has been proposed that tropical events could have participated in the triggering of the classic, high-latitude, iceberg-discharge Heinrich events (HE). We explore low-latitude Heinrich events equivalents at high resolution, in a piston core recovered from the tropical north-western African margin. They are characterized by an increase of total dust, lacustrine diatoms and fibrous lacustrine clay minerals. Thus, low-latitude events clearly reflect severe aridity events that occurred over Africa at the Saharan latitudes, probably induced by southward shifts of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. At a first approximation, it seems that there is more likely synchronicity between the high-latitude Heinrich Events (HEs) and low-latitude events (LLE), rather than asynchronous behaviours.