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Many hillslopes in the limestone dominated Taurus Mountain Range (SWTurkey) are characterized by severely depleted soils, while a significant amount of sediment is being stored in the valley bottoms. The same holds true for the 11.4 km2 endorheic Gravgaz basin in the vicinity of the Hellenistic-Roman city of Sagalassos inSWTurkey. Previous palaeo-environmental research in this basin already yielded both detailed sedimentological and palynological information on sedimentation in the valley bottom and vegetation changes that took place during the last severalmillennia. An adaptedWATEM/SEDEMgeomorphicmodel versionwas used to simulate the impact of the observed changes in vegetation cover, climate and hillslope soil properties on hillslope soil erosion and valley bottomsediment deposition over the last 4000 years. The calibratedWATEM/SEDEMmodel is able to reconstruct the temporal changes of sedimentation in the valley bottom reasonably well. To simulate the impact of historic soil erosion on crop productivity a simple crop yield model was coupled to the reconstructed soil thickness maps. The main outcomes are that soil erosion wasmainly driven by deforestation and hence anthropogenic activity, but the resulting soil erosion did not cause a complete collapse of crop yields. On the contrary,wewere able to quantify that the sediment accumulation in the lower lying valley bottoms compensated at least a part of the loss in crop yield fromthe hillslopes: potential crop yield value changed from2.80 t ha−1 a−1 before widespread deforestation to 2.58 t ha−1 a−1 during Roman-Imperial times and 2.19 t ha−1 a−1 at present. These model approaches are tools that allow us to quantify human impact in the past, going beyond traditional qualitative descriptions, which will ultimately lead to a better understanding of human-environment interactions in the past. publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Human induced soil erosion and the implications on crop yield in a small mountainous Mediterranean catchment (SW-Turkey) journaltitle: CATENA articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2016.08.023 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ispartof: Catena vol:149 pages:491-504 status: published

This contribution discusses the Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine pottery collected during archaeological survey in the Bereket valley (territory of ancient Sagalassos, southwest Turkey). This collection contains both pottery imported from as yet unknown production centres and wares produced in the Potters’ Quarter of Sagalassos. Changes in the proportions of pottery produced at Sagalassos and those produced at other locations become visible in the fourthcentury AD material and reflect the evolving relationship between the peripheral valley of Bereket and the regional centre of Sagalassos. Yet, the undiminished quantity of pottery collected suggests that human activity continued without significant changes in habitation density. However, pollen cores from the same valley show that at more or less the same time crop cultivation diminished and was largely replaced by pastoralism. This shift occured at a time when climatic conditions had become more favourable for crop cultivation. A somewhat similar decrease in crop cultivation is also observed in Gravgaz marsh. In both valleys, this shift occured about 300 years earlier than in the rest of the territory of Sagalassos. Although the reasons for these changes cannot be determined on the basis of the study of survey pottery alone, the results presented show the importance of intensive survey and the study of peripheral areas for understanding inter-regional interaction patterns.

Alluvial and colluvial sediment deposition provide a vital record of environmental change during the Holocene. Firm chronological control on these archives is necessary to enable us to relate sediment dynamics to human activity and climate variability. In the Eastern Mediterranean, such relationships are hard to establish due to the lack of spatially well-distributed sediment archives with good chronological control. This scarcity is problematic with respect to regional-scale reconstructions of the temporal variation of sediment dynamics. Here, we present a radiocarbon database (n ¼ 178) of geomorphological activity collected from multiple distinct sediment archives within the territory of Sagalassos in south-western Turkey. The data were grouped according to their sedimentary facies for analysis using cumulative probability distributions (CPDs) and sedimentation rate (SR) modelling. Two small-scale colluvial valleys, where chronological information was abundant, were investigated in more detail. Results show that sedimentation chronology differs between individual, nearby cores, as it depends strongly on the local geomorphic situation. A generalizing approach combining multiple core results yields more widely valid conclusions. High sedimentation rates coincided with the initial major anthropogenic disturbance of the landscape and decreased afterwards, probably due to hillslope soil depletion. CPD and SR analysis indicates that in general colluvial sedimentation rates did not change much from 2000 BC onwards. River floodplain sedimentation, in contrast, increased markedly during the first millennium BC and during recent times, and a significant time lag in enhanced sediment deposition between the upper and lower reaches of the river valleys was observed. Copyright # 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A well-dated pollen diagram from Gravgaz marsh, near the archaeological site of Sagalassos (western Taurus Mountains, Turkey), provides the first detailed record of vegetation change in southwest Turkey during the last two millennia. A newly developed numerical analysis disentangles the climatic and anthropogenic influences on vegetation and reveals for the first time for southwest Turkey the timing and influence of late-Holocene climate change. Results show that sudden vegetation changes, driven by changes in moisture availability, co-occurred with well-defined European climate shifts. A trend towards dry conditions, from c. ad 640 to 940, coincides with the cold early Middle Ages in Europe. During this period, human presence in the region diminished and agricultural activity switched focus from crop cultivation to pastoralism while signs of cereal cultivation temporarily ceased. This period was followed by a return to moister conditions from ad 940 to 1280, coinciding with the ‘Medieval Climate Anomaly’. During this period there was a resurgence of human activity in the basin. Another trend towards dry conditions occurred at c. ad 1280, corresponding with the start of the ‘Little Ice Age’ in Europe and another disappearance of cereal pollen until the present day. The numerical analyses suggest that human impact around Gravgaz during the last two millennia is primarily driven by climatic changes.

Investigators have studied past environmental change in the Eastern Mediterranean region from a number of perspectives. While climate reconstructions and palynological research have focused on forces that drive the geomorphologic system, many researchers have attempted to use sediment archive studies to identify periods of change in sediment dynamics. Due to the large variability in environmental parameters and the variety of landscapes present in the Eastern Mediterranean region, research has focused on sediment archives ranging from small colluvial sites to deltas of large rivers on the Mediterranean coast. As the cultural record for the region is extremely rich, the main goal of palaeo-environmental research in the Eastern Mediterranean has been to identify the relative importance of human impact on the landscape. Nevertheless, sediment archives have significant limitations: chronological control for many palaeo-environmental records is highly uncertain, and rates of landscape change are oftentimes difficult to assess. Most palaeo-environmental research has been conducted on or near archeological sites, where direct human impact may obscure the indirect impact on sediment dynamics through land-use changes. Quantification and modeling of sediment dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean environment offer one solution. When erosion and sediment transport rate analyses are incorporated, periods of relatively important change can be identified. Using multiple approaches the relative importance of the main driving forces, climate and land use, become distinguishable. Since field-based data from the actual sediment archives remain vital, an overview of numerous studies in the Eastern Mediterranean is provided in order to draw a general picture for different time periods and the relative scale of regional landscape development during the Holocene. A comparison of sediment dynamics with the record of driving forces indicates that while climate was the main driver of the geomorphic system during the early Holocene, at some point human impact became widespread and began to dictate sediment dynamics to a large extent. From the Byzantine Period onward soil properties seem to play an increasingly important role, as the hillslope soil reservoir in the Eastern Mediterranean was progressively depleted during the late Holocene.

Past vegetation change and the influence of climate change and anthropogenic pressure during the Holocene is constructed from a series of palynological records sampled from three locations within the territory of the antique site of Sagalassos. The disappearance of the original deciduous oak woodlands and increases in anthropogenic indicator species around 5300 and 4300 b.c. correspond with an increase in settlements in the region. A period of drought following the deforestation may have hampered the recovery of deciduous oak. The timing of the onset of the Beysehir Occupation Phase (BO-Phase) in the territory differs between locations, estimates ranging from ca. 1000–800 b.c. to the start of the Hellenistic period (334 b.c.). The most intense period of arboriculture coincides with the Roman and late-Roman periods. Increases in human pressure on the landscape as reflected in the pollen record correspond with an increased rate of sedimentation and fire activity. The timing of the end of the BO-Phase again differs between locations. Estimates range from the 4th century a.d. to the mid 7th century a.d., when a region-wide shift to dry environmental conditions is observed. Numerical analyses show that post BO-Phase vegetation change is largely driven by climate and displays a succession of dry and wet periods that coincided with well-defined European climate shifts, including the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age. Current agricultural activities in the region are of a very recent (20th century) origin.

International audience; The coastal area of Jableh, in the vicinity of the Saladin and Al-Marquab castles, is a fertile alluvial plain located on the northwestern part of Syria, in what was once the crusader Principality of Antioch. In order to detail the coastal environment during the crusader period in the Middle East, palynological analyses have been conducted on the underlying coastal-alluvial deposits. The recovered sediments represent a continuous record of the environmental history of the area spanning a c. AD 850—1850 cal. yr period, from the Muslim Era up to and including the late Ottoman times. During the local crusader period (AD 1100—1270), the area was dominated by an arborescent mattoral mixed with a xerophytic shrub-steppe. The alluvial plain was slightly waterlogged and colonized by a wetland meadow with an open vegetation of steppe-like character on bare surfaces and fresh arable soils. The riparian and open deciduous riverine forests were weakly developed. Signs of agricultural activities are mainly recorded for the High Medieval period (AD 1000—1300), with an increase of vineyards in the coastal area. Since c. AD 1250 cal. yr until the end of the crusader period, agricultural activities never reached the same intensity as during the Mameluke Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire.

Assessment of the wild or cultivated origin of Olea europaea L. during the middle to late Holocene according to pollen analyses is of palaeoecological and evolutionary interest as olive is thought to be one of the earliest cultivated trees and is still one of the most important fruit trees of the eastern Mediterranean. This paper considers data from the Bronze—Iron Age harbour-town, Tell Tweini, of the Ugarit Kingdom, in the Syrian coastal lowland near Jableh (17 m a.s.l.) and from the Hellenistic—Roman Moatra-Bereket (1410 m a.s.l.), in the territory of Sagalassos, in Turkey’s western Taurus Mountains. Both of these sites have recorded the rise and collapse of early eastern Mediterranean urban systems from 4200 to 1600 cal. yr BP. The Syrian data suggest that the Olea pollen-type originated from wild varieties during the Bronze and Iron Ages despite archaeological evidence for olive cultivation in the northern Levant. For Turkey, the results of the pollen-numerical analyses support the existing archaeological evidence of a wealthy oleoculture in Hellenistic and Roman Anatolia and suggest important anthropogenic pressures on local ecosystems.

We have reconstructed the altitudinal position of the upper forest line (UFL) during the last 6000 years. This boundary between montane forest and páramo (tropical alpine grasslands) has important ecological and societal relevance. It is suggested that human-induced fires and deforestation during the long occupation history of the Central Valley of Ecuador have caused a downslope shift of the UFL and have given way to a downslope expansion of páramo vegetation. More recently, montane forests and lower páramo have been replaced to a large extent by agricultural land. Pollen analysis of a 90 cm long sediment core G15-II from a small mire at 3400 m elevation, 200 m below the actual UFL in Guandera Biological Reserve (0°36′N, 77°42′E), shows the altitudinal position of the UFL during seven discrete intervals: (1) from 7150 to 6240 cal. yr BP the UFL was at c. 3100—3200 m and climatic conditions were cool; (2) from 6240 to 5320 cal. yr BP the UFL shifted to c. 3600 m and upper montane rainforest (UMRF) surrounded the mire; (3) from 5320 to 2160 cal. yr BP the UFL was at 3600—3650 m elevation and montane forest consisted mainly of Hedyosmum, Weinmannia , Melastomataceae, Ilex, Scrophulariaceae and Symplocos; (4) from 2160 to 910 cal. yr BP the UFL shifted downslope to 3350 m and the mire was located in the lowermost páramo; (5) from 910 to 520 cal. yr BP cooler climatic conditions prevailed and the UFL was at 3250—3300 m; (6) since c. 520 cal. yr BP the UFL has shifted upslope to 3600 m. During this period presence of agricultural weeds ( Rumex) and evidence of draining and disturbance of the mire indicate that agricultural activities expanded and almost reached the reserve area; (7) during the last 150 cal. yr disturbance increased. We conclude that during the last 6000 years the UFL reached a maximum altitude of 3650 to 3700 m, indicating that páramo grasslands above this elevation represent a natural ecosystem. Under the Kyoto Protocol-driven reforestation activities, trees should be planted up to a maximum of 3700 m. Planting trees (exotic species in particular) above 3700 m would contribute to the degradation of the natural ecosystem.

Pollen analyses of a peat profile collected from Butterburn Flow, northern England have been used to reconstruct vegetation and land-use change from the late Neolithic ( c. 3230 cal. BC) to the present day. `Wiggle-matching' of 42 AMS 14C dates has enabled a precise (decadal scale) chronology to be established, and the results are interpreted within the context of previous studies of vegetation change in the area. Three late Neolithic—Bronze Age woodland clearance phases occurred, with the first beginning c. 2290 cal. BC. Cleared areas were utilized for pastoral and limited arable agriculture. Late Iron Age clearance and agricultural intensification began at Butterburn Flow c. 300 cal. BC; the peak period of clearance c. 90 cal. BC—AD 50 cal. was comparable in intensity with that in the fourteenth century AD. Farmland in the area was abandoned during the period c. AD 90—450 cal., contemporaneous with the Roman occupation of the region; Following Roman withdrawal, a resurgence of agriculture occurred. The timing of later periods of agricultural decline relate to climatic deterioration, political instability and disease in the region.

Davis, B.A.S. et al., Modern pollen samples provide an invaluable research tool for helping to interpret the quaternary fossil pollen record, allowing investigation of the relationship between pollen as the proxy and the environmental parameters such as vegetation, land-use, and climate that the pollen proxy represents. The European Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) is a new initiative within the European Pollen Database (EPD) to establish a publicly accessible repository of modern (surface sample) pollen data. This new database will complement the EPD, which at present holds only fossil sedimentary pollen data. The EMPD is freely available online to the scientific community and currently has information on almost 5,000 pollen samples from throughout the Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean regions, contributed by over 40 individuals and research groups. Here we describe how the EMPD was constructed, the various tables and their fields, problems and errors, quality controls, and continuing efforts to improve the available data.

Anatolia forms a bridge between Europe, Africa and Asia and is influenced by all three continents in terms of climate, vegetation and human civilisation. Unfortunately, well-dated palynological records focussing on the period from the end of the classical Roman period until subrecent times are rare for Anatolia and completely absent for southwest Turkey, resulting in a lacuna in knowledge concerning the interactions of climatic change, human impact, and environmental change in this important region. Two well-dated palaeoecological records from the Western Taurus Mountains, Turkey, provide a first relatively detailed record of vegetation dynamics from late Roman times until the present in SW Turkey. Combining pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal, sedimentological, archaeological data, and newly developed multivariate numerical analyses allows for the disentangling of climatic and anthropogenic influences on vegetation change. Results show changes in both the regional pollen signal as well as local soil sediment characteristics match shifts in regional climatic conditions. Both climatic as well as anthropogenic change had a strong influence on vegetation dynamics and land use. A moist environmental trend during the late-3rd century caused an increase in marshes and wetlands in the moister valley floors, limiting possibilities for intensive crop cultivation at such locations. A mid-7th century shift to pastoralism coincided with a climatic deterioration as well as the start of Arab incursions into the region, the former driving the way in which the vegetation developed afterwards. Resurgence in agriculture was observed in the study during the mid-10th century AD, coinciding with the Medieval Climate Anomaly. An abrupt mid-12th century decrease in agriculture is linked to socio-political change, rather than the onset of the Little Ice Age. Similarly, gradual deforestation occurring from the 16th century onwards has been linked to changes in land use during Ottoman times. The pollen data reveal that a fast rise in Pinus pollen after the end of the Beyşehir Occupation Phase need not always occur. The notion of high Pinus pollen percentages indicating an open landscape incapable of countering the influx of pine pollen is also deemed unrealistic. While multiple fires occurred in the region through time, extended fire periods, as had occurred during the Bronze Age and Beyşehir Occupation Phase, did not occur, and no signs of local fire activity were observed. Fires were never a major influence on vegetation dynamics. While no complete overview of post-BO Phase fire events can be presented, the available data indicates that fires in the vicinity of Gravgaz may have been linked to anthropogenic activity in the wider surroundings of the marsh. Fires in the vicinity of Bereket appeared to be linked to increased abundance of pine forests. There was no link with specifically wet or dry environmental conditions at either site. While this study reveals much new information concerning the impact of climate change and human occupation on the environment, more studies from SW Turkey are required in order to properly quantify the range of the observed phenomena and the magnitude of their impacts. © 2013 Author(s). ispartof: Climate of the Past vol:9 issue:1 pages:57-87 status: published

International audience; The alluvial deposits of a small spring valley near Jableh, in north-western coastal Syria, provides a unique record of environmental history covering the last 1000 years. The pollen-derived climatic proxy inferred from a 315 cm deep core of alluvial deposits suggests that a shift towards wetter climatic conditions occurred from circa (ca.) 1000 to 1250 calibrated (cal) yr AD. This period is situated within the time frame of the Medieval Climate Anomaly. The reconstructed temperature trends show that the warming during this medieval episode was not as high as the modern scores, except for short intervals during the early 12th century AD. The core also recorded a shift towards drier conditions starting during the late 12th century AD, which represents the Eastern Mediterranean expression of the European "Great Famine" climatic event. The main dry and cool interval recorded in coastal Syria occurred from ca. 1520 to 1870 cal yr AD, a time frame encompassing the Little Ice Age. In Mediterranean Syria, the Little Ice Age is not only cooler, but also much drier than the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the present-day climate. Despite a strong human presence in coastal Syria throughout the last millennia, climate rather than anthropogenic activity seems to be the driving force behind the natural vegetation dynamics in this region.

Background In stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the role of systemic chemotherapy preceding or following concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CT-RT) is unclear. We carried out a randomized phase II study to study the toxicity involved-field CT-RT with either induction or consolidation cisplatin–docetaxel (Taxotere). Patients and methods Patients were randomly assigned to receive two cycles of docetaxel (D) 75 mg/m2 on day 1 and cisplatin (C) 40 mg/m2 on days 1 and 2, either preceding (IND arm) or following (CON arm) concurrent CT-RT, where 66 Gy was delivered using involved-fields concurrent with weekly D 20 mg/m2 and C 20 mg/m2. Patients at higher risk for lung toxicity (V20 > 35%) crossed over to IND arm. Seventy patients were needed to exclude grade (G)3–4 esophagitis in >25%. Results Of the 70 eligible patients, 26 were treated in IND and 34 CON; five with V20 >35% switched from CON to IND. The differences in G3–4 esophagitis observed (32/2% IND versus 21/3% CON) were not significantly different from the hypothesized 25% rate. Rates of G≥2 pneumonitis were similar, but IND arm had less G3–4 neutropenia. One-year survival was 63.2% [95% confidence interval (CI) 48.4% to 78.0%] and 65.5% (95% CI 48.2% to 82.8%) for the IND and CON arms, respectively. Conclusion Both study arms merit further testing in patients with limited volume stage III NSCLC.

Unfortunately, the list of authors contains a number of duplications, omissions and other errors in the original publication of the article. The correct list appears in this erratum.