Climatic and environmental evolution of Lake Iznik (NW Turkey) over the last ∼4700 years

Magnetic susceptibility, geochemistry, mineralogy and palynology of sediments from Lake Iznik in Northwestern Anatolia, Turkey, provide a 4700 year record of climatic trends and events. The measured proxies allow a reconstruction of variations in humid/dry periods and lake level changes. The Lake Iznik sedimentary sequence points to an oscillating trend of humid periods interrupted by rapid climate change (RCC) to arid periods. Especially abrupt lithologic and geochemical changes at 4.2 and 3.3 ka calBP may outline intense droughts, which extremely lowered the lake level. For the last 2000 years, the effects of the Roman warm period, Dark Age cold period, Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age are recorded within Lake Iznik sediments. Besides many similarities of local climatic periods with other records from the Eastern Mediterranean, there are also differences indicating the complex pattern of the climate in the region.