The Holocene vegetation history of the Arabian Peninsula is poorly understood, with few palaeobotanical studies to date. At Awafi, Ras al-Khaimah, UAE, a 3.3 m lake sediment sequence records the vegetation development for the period 8500 cal. yr BP to � 3000 cal. yr BP. 13 C isotope, pollen and phytolith analyses indicate that C3 Pooid grassland with a strong woody element existed during the early Holocene (between 8500 and 6000 cal. yr BP) and became replaced by mixed C3 and C4 grasses with a strong C4 Panicoid tall grass element between 5900 and 5400 cal. yr BP. An intense, arid event occurred at 4100 cal. yr BP when the lake desiccated and was infilled by Aeolian sand. From 4100 cal. yr BP the vegetation was dominated by C4 Chloridoid types and Cyperaceae, suggesting an incomplete vegetation cover and Aeolian dune reactivation owing to increased regio- nal aridity. These data outline the ecosystem dynamics and carbon cycling in response to palaeomon- soon and north-westerly variability during the Holocene. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Holocene vegetation dynamics in the northeastern Rub' al-Khali desert, Arabian Peninsula: a phytolith, pollen and carbon isotope study

Preface Acknowledgements 1. Climate changes in the Levant during the Late Quaternary 2. Climate changes during the Holocene in Europe 3. Climate changes during the Holocene in East Asia (China, Korea and Japan) 4. Climate changes during the Holocene in Africa 5. Climate changes over Western USA and Mexico during the Holocene 6. General conclusions References.

Climate Changes during the Holocene and their Impact on Hydrological Systems

The emerging picture of prehistoric Arabia suggests that early modern humans were able to survive periodic hyperarid oscillations by contracting into environmental refugia around the coastal margins of the peninsula. This paper reviews new paleoenvironmental, archaeological, and genetic evidence from the Arabian Peninsula and southern Iran to explore the possibility of a demographic refugium dubbed the “Gulf Oasis,” which is posited to have been a vitally significant zone for populations residing in southwest Asia during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. These data are used to assess the role of this large oasis, which, before being submerged beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean, was well watered by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and Wadi Batin rivers as well as subterranean aquifers flowing beneath the Arabian subcontinent. Inverse to the amount of annual precipitation falling across the interior, reduced sea levels periodically exposed large portions of the Arabo-Persian Gulf, equal at times to ...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/657397

New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis

Calcareous dunes of the United Arab Emirates and Noah's Flood: the postglacial reflooding of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf

The Liwa region of the United Arab Emirates is one of the most distinctive geomorphological features of the Rub Al Khali desert of southern Arabia. Characterized by a sharp crescentic boundary coincident with a N-S elevation drop of ∼65 m with the transverse ridges in Al Qâfa to the north, Liwa is an area of some of the world9s largest megabarchan dunes. Deep drilling of continuous cores has provided an opportunity to observe the internal structure and age of these two ergs. Subsurface stratigraphy is complex, reflecting rapid facies transitions between dune and interdune sub-environments. Most of the cored sediment is dominated by cross-bedded and structureless sand units of inferred eolian (transverse dune) depositional origin. A total of 56 optical ages for sand-sized quartz grains extracted from these cores provide a chronological framework for deposition of the late Quaternary ergs. A marine isotope stage (MIS) 5 erg is identified north of the Liwa crescent in the Al Qâfa region, which reaches vertical thicknesses >100 m. A MIS 1 erg in the form of megabarchan dunes is recorded south of the Liwa crescent. This was deposited on a pre–MIS 5 land surface, since ca. 6 ka, over a period of just a few thousand years. Contemporary bypassing of eolian sands via superimposed dunes in both Al Qâfa and Liwa appears to be in equilibrium with the current wind regime. A consideration of a variety of factors that control the availability, mobilization, and preservation of eolian sediments and resulting bedforms leads us to infer that the system is not sediment-supply or transport limited. Instead, the system is preservation limited, being controlled by a correlated combination of sea level and precipitation. Both of these factors are strongly linked to global climate variations in the eccentricity (ca. 100 ka) band. Paradoxically, the bulk of the preserved record of eolian activity in the southern Arabian Peninsula occurs within relatively humid interglacial phases rather than arid intervals. Evidence of eolian deposition during arid phases may not for the most part be preserved in large areas of the sand sea. Observed contrasts in the preserved record of eolian activity between Al Qâfa and Liwa, and the Wahiba Sand Sea, may in part relate to contrasting eolian bedform morphology.

Bernard Dupuis

Papers

Holocene shoreline variations in the Persian Gulf: Example of the Umm al-Qowayn lagoon (UAE)