QUATERNARY RESEARCH 27, 82-88 (1987)

Palynology of Pleistocene Travertines from the Arava Valley, Israel

MINA WEINSTEIN-EVRON
Laboratory of Palynology, Institute of Archaeology and Maritime Studies, University of Haifa,
Mt. Carmel 31 999, Israel
Received February 24, 1986

Pollen samples from the Arava travertines, dated to oxygen isotope stages 5 and 7, show rela-
tively high arboreal pollen levels. These spectra are probably a result of an expansion of the
Mediterranean maquis in Transjordan, which indicates periods of wetter climatic conditions. These
periods probably represent humid fluctuations within stages 5 and 7. Q 1987 University of Washington.

INTRODUCTION cover is restricted to wadi beds, sands, sa-

lines, and tropical enclaves in oases. The
The Arava Sayif travertines, dated by most important plants are Helianthemum
239h/234U, revealed two main chronolog- lipii, H. kahiricum, Asteriscus graveolens,
ical clusters, coinciding with the warmer Blepharis ciliaris, Hammada negevensis,
global episodes of isotopic stages 5 and 7 H. salicornica, Calligonum comosum,
(Livnat and Kronfeld, 1985). Assuming Traganum nudatum, and Zygophyllum
that travertines represent wetter conditions dumosum, together with many Chenopo-
than those of today, Livnat and Kronfeld diaceae (Danin, 1977). Thermophilous
(1985) argued that during these stages the plants, such as Anvillea garcini, Ochra-
arid south of Israel apparently was consid- denus baccatus, Tricholaena teneriffae,
erably wetter than at present. The aim of Citrullus colocynthis, Zilla spinosa, Pergu-
the present study is to determine whether laria tomentosa, Pulicaria undulata, and
and to what extent the Arava travertines do Trichodesma africana are quite abundant.
represent periods of wetter climatic condi- Vegetational variability is closely related to
tions. the soils. In the large wadi beds, east Af-
The Arava Valley, located to the south of rican (Sudanian) species occur. These are
the Dead Sea Basin (Fig. l), is part of the mainly Acacia tortilis, A. raddiana, and
Dead Sea/Jordan Rift system. Climatic Tamarix aphylla, together with Lycium and
conditions in the Arava today are ex- Ziziphus spina-christi (Danin, 1977). Ta-
tremely arid. The average annual rainfall is marix and various Chenopodiaceae are the
less than 50 mm; the mean annual tempera- main components of the large Sedom Sa-
ture is about 25”C, with a daytime average line northeast of the area under discussion
of about 16°C in January and 34°C in Au- (Zohary, 1973; Danin, 1977). For distribu-
gust. The prevailing winds are westerlies; tion of the main plant classes see Figure 1.
eastern winds occur primarily during Irano-Turanian steppe, with Artemisie-
winter and spring (Katzenelson, 1967). The talia herbae-albae as the main order,
soils are of three main types: coarse desert occurs at higher elevations, both to the
alluvium, regosolic reg, and stony regosols west (central Negev) and east (Trans-
(Dan and Raz, 1970). jordan) of the research area (Fig. I). In
Phytogeographically the Arava Valley Transjordan, remnants of a Mediterranean
belongs to the Saharo-Arabian province maquis, with Quercus calliprinos and Juni-
(Zohary, 1973). Most of the vegetational perus phoenicea as the leading plants, are

82
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 INTERGLACIAL CLIMATES IN ISRAEL

FIG. 1. Generalized vegetation map of the study area (after Zohary, 1955. 1982). For detailed sec-
tions and sampling localities see Livnat and Kronfeld (1985). (1) Saharo Arabian. mainly Anahusrrva
urficulatae. Hummadeteu saliconicae, Zygophylletuliu dumosi. Retamo-Tumuricetea Jlrrviutilis (in
wadi beds), and the Acucieteu tortilis substtdunicu (in tropical enclaves): (2) Climax area of Irano-
Turanian dwarf shrub steppes, dominated by the Artemisieteu herbue-albue communities: (3) Medi-
terranean climax area of the Pistucio puluestinue-Quercetttm culliprini (Israel) with Junipcrrrs
phoenicea (Transjordan); (4) Saharo-Arabian salines of the Suaedeteu jixticosue (deserti).

reported from an elevation of 1400- 1600 m
(Zohary, 1955, 1973; Atkinson and Beau-
mont, 1971).
METHODS
All of the 15 dated travertines were sam-
pled for pollen analysis. To avoid contami-
nation, relatively large pieces of travertine
(ca. 100 g) were first cleaned by HCI. The
remaining material (ca. 50 g) was again
treated by HCl, to remove the carbonates.
A specific-gravity separation was then car-
ried out by a ZnCl, solution with 1.9 den-
sity, together with sieving. After a short
 03
P

TABLE 1. POLLENSPECTRAPERCENTAGESFROMTHEARAVAVALLEY,ISRAEL

Sample No.: NAl NA2 9 10 II 12 1 5 6 18

zi4
86 2 10 63 2 6 218 + 25/-21 221 + 38/-30 235 + 321-25 105 k 20
Age (lo3 yr B.P.p Recent 174 + 371-27 125 k 13 3
-
Quercus
calliprinos 1.3 0.5 3.4 14.1 20.5 13.5 11.4 15.9 11.0 5.0
Olea europaea - - - 4.4 2.4 - 2.4 1.2 3.1 5.4
Juniperus - - - - 0.8 - - - - -
Pistacia sp. - - - 0.9 5.5 - 0.5 7.3 1.6 6.2
Pinus
halepensis 1.9 3.9 4.6 6.1 3.1 1.2 1.9 14.6 3.1 2.7 2
Ziziphus 0.6 - - - 5.5 -
Catya 1.3 - - - - - - 0.9 -1.2 - 0.8 - P
Salvadora 3.9 - - 0.9 - - - - - -
Acacia ii - - 4.9 - - 0.8
Tamarix (6) (12) (3:; (1) (50) (74) (13) (11) (30)
Salix - - - (8) - - (1) - - -
Total AP 9.0 4.4 9.2 30.8 37.8 19.6 17.1 40.2 20.4 19.3
Gramineae 7.1 13.7 19.6 14.0 12.6 8.6 7.1 14.6 3.9 1.6
Chenopodiaceae 64.9 61.5 33.3 36.0 11.0 49.4 22.7 13.4 35.2 34.1
Artemisia 9.1 11.7 12.6 7.9 11.0 7.4 33.2 7.3 28.9 19.0
tibulitlorael
Compositae 3.2 6.8 21.8 2.6 4.7 6.2 2.9 8.5 5.5 15.9
Centaurea - - - 0.9 0.8 - - - - -
Echinops - 0.5 - - - - - - - -
Umbelliferae - - 1.1 0.9 7.9 1.2 5.7 2.4 1.6 0.8
 INTERGLACIAL CLIMATES IN ISRAEL

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86 MINA WEINSTEIN-EVRON
acetolysis, the organic residue was stained
with safranin and mounted in silicone.
Pollen grains were preserved in eight
samples only. These included samples from
En Erga, high terrace (sample No. l), En
Rahel, west terrace (samples 5 and 6), En
Rahel, east terrace (Samples 9-12, from
bottom to top), and En Yahav top (sample
No. 18). The absolute datings (Livnat and
Kronfeld, 1985) are given in Table 1. Two
recent pollen spectra, from the nearby
Nahal Amazyahu, were analyzed for com-
parison.
RESULTS
The recent pollen spectra fully coincide
with the vegetational cover of the area,
with very high nonarboreal pollen (NAP)
levels (90.6-95.7%). Chenopodiaceae are
clearly dominant within the NAP (61.5-
64.9%), and Artemisia (9.1- 11.7%), Gra-
mineae (7. I- 13.7%). and Tubuliflorae
Compositae (3.2-6.8%) are fairly well rep-
resented. Within the AP group Quercus
calliprinos, Pinus halepensis, and Tamarix
are the only types present in both samples;
the latter most likely originates from the
nearby wadi bed. Salvadora is present in
one of the samples only, where it occurs in
lumps, probably due to the fact that it is
insect pollinated. Hydrophilous trees and
Tamarix were excluded from the analyses
because of their very local nature. More-
over, it was felt that the high and variable
values of Tamarix would prevent reliable
regional interpretations.
Except for sample No. 6 the fossil pollen
grains were well preserved. Even though
some of the spectra were very poor in
pollen, results of all of the analyzed
samples are presented in Table 1.
Because of lack of precision in the 230Th/
234U dates, some of which may even belong
to even-numbered isotope stages, it is not
possible to correlate the pollen samples to a
well-defined time range. Therefore, only
general paleoenvironmental reconstruc-
tions will be presented here and no attempt
will be made to place them within a chrono-
logical/climatological sequence.
The fossil pollen spectra are quite varied,
probably due to the fact that they represent
different localities and periods. However,
when compared to recent spectra, they
usually reveal higher AP levels (9-40%
compared to 4.5-9% in the recent spectra)
and considerably lower Chenopodiaceae
levels (1 l-49% compred to 62-65%). The
rise in the AP levels is due to mainly
Quercus calliprinos (3.5- 16%), together
with Pistacia (up to 7.5%), Olea europaea
(up to 5.5%), or Pinus halepensis (up to
14.5%). The decrease in the Chenopodia-
ceae is accompanied by different composi-
tions of Artemisia, Compositae, Umbelli-
ferae, and Gramineae.
PALEOENVIRONMENTAL
RECONSTRUCTION
The rise in AP and especially in Quercus,
together with the relatively high values of
Pistacia, Olea, and Pinus, indicate an ex-
pansion both westward and into lower ele-
vations of the Mediterranean maquis in
Transjordan. An expansion of a Mediterra-
nean maquis in the Negev is less likely.
This maquis expansion is probably a result
of periods of higher humidity than today.
The lower values of Chenopodiaceae,
which are the main indicators of dry (and
saline) conditions, lend further support to
this view.
Though all of the samples represent
wetter conditions, some of them indicate
only a moderate rise in humidity. But even
in sample No. 9, with AP levels compa-
rable to recent values, wetter conditions
were deduced from the considerably lower
values of Chenopodiaceae (33%) and the
relatively high values of Gramineae and
Compositae. The lack of Liguliflorae Com-
positae from both the recent and fossil
spectra may indicate a relatively constant
high salinity. Similar observations have
been made for the coastal salines where the
Liguliflorae Compositae were absent from
hypersaline environments (Galili and Wein-
stein-Evron, 1985).
As stands of Pistacia atlantica presently
occur in the Negev, especially in the
 INTERGLACIAL CLIMATES IN ISRAEL x7

Mitzpeh-Ramon area (Danin, 1977), high long periods?) may cause an extensive de-
Pistacia levels may indicate a past expan- position of travertines in the Arava.
sion of this species in the Negev. However, The humid conditions represented here
as Pistuciu (excluding P. palaestina) is do not imply that stages 5 and 7 as a whole
usually underrepresented in the pollen were humid. They do indicate, however.
spectra (Bottema and Barkoudah. 1979). it that wetter fluctuations occurred during
is possible that most of the Pistucia pollen these warm stages in the arid south of
originated from P. puluestinu, which is a Israel. The occurrence of wet periods
main component of the Mediterranean within the last interglaciation was also de-
maquis in Transjordan (Zohary, 1955, duced from fauna1 (Tchernov, 1981), sedi-
1973). mentological (Goldberg, 1981; Boenigk et
The occurrence of Oleu ewopueu pollen al., 1985), and palynological (Weinstein-
in the spectra indicates that olives were Evron, 1983) analyses. Such phenomena
part of the Mediterranean maquis of Trans- are also known from other interglacial
jordan in the periods under discussion. stages, e.g.. the early to middle Holocene
Today, olive trees are reported from more humid phase in the Sudan (eastern Sahara)
northern areas, between Amman and reported by Ritchie et al. (1985) and also
Arbed (Atkinson and Beaumont, 1971), indicated by eastern Mediterranean sap-
where they occupy mainly southern slopes. ropels (Rossignol-Strick et al., 1982). Be-
The occurrence of this relatively ther- cause of the chronological problems dis-
mophilous tree in the pollen spectra may cussed above, correlations with the contin-
lend further support to the assumption that uous paleoclimatological foraminifera se-
the Mediterranean maquis in Transjordan quences from the nearby Gulf of Aqaba
extended toward lower elevations. The and Red Sea (Reiss et al., 1980: Halicz and
present maquis, at an elevation of Reiss, 1981) are not possible.
1400- 1600 m is comprised of mainly Stage 7 is, unfortunately, even less well
Ql(ercll.s culliprinos and Juniper-us pho- known than stage 5. Even though the
eniceu. pollen samples studied so far indicate that
The high Pinus levels (14.6%) in sample in stage 5 more humid phases occurred, the
No. 5 are exceptional. Due to the fact that possibility of similar wet fluctuations in the
only 105 pollen grains were extracted from earlier period should not be disregarded. It
this sample and taking into account the is worth noting that a travertine formation
wide dispersion of Pinus pollen, specific related to considerable faulting, rather than
ecological interpretations are not made. to climatological changes, is suggested by
Pinus hulepensis nowadays occurs north of Horowitz (in press), especially for this
Amman, and a possible southward expan- stage.
sion should not be excluded. Even though Also of interest to this research is the
Pinus hulepensis can be found in quite arid problem of the Sudanian flora. These types
zones, and is even reported from areas with are lacking from the fossil spectra, most
200-300 mm rainfall in North Africa (Le likely because they are insect pollinated
Houerou, 1973), the quite high oak values (A. Dafni, personal communication, 1986).
in this sample probably indicate wetter As a result, our study was not able to shed
conditions during the time of deposition. further light on the problem relating to the
In summary, the Arava travertines’ pal- antiquity and history of this vegetation in
ynological spectra indicate wetter periods Israel. Shmida and Or (1983) provide a re-
during the time of their deposition. A few cent summary of the problem.
samples indicate a considerable rise in hu-
midity while for others it is more moderate. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It seems that a small rise in humidity (over Thanks are given to Dr. A. Livnat and Dr. J.
88 MINA WEINSTEIN-EVRON
Kronfeld for initiating and encouraging this study and
to Dr. D. Kaufman for his assistance in the editing of
the manuscript. The constructive remarks of Prof. B.
Frenzel, Dr. A. Dafni, and an anonymous reviewer
were very helpful. Maps were drawn by Z. Friedman.
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