Mediterranean climates are characterized by strong seasonal contrasts between dry summers and wet winters. Changes in winter rainfall are critical for regional socioeconomic development, but are difficult to simulate accurately and reconstruct on Quaternary timescales. This is partly because regional hydroclimate records that cover multiple glacial–interglacial cycles, with different orbital geometries, global ice volume and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are scarce. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms of change and their persistence remain unexplored. Here we show that, over the past 1.36 million years, wet winters in the northcentral Mediterranean tend to occur with high contrasts in local, seasonal insolation and a vigorous African summer monsoon. Our proxy time series from Lake Ohrid on the Balkan Peninsula, together with a 784,000-year transient climate model hindcast, suggest that increased sea surface temperatures amplify local cyclone development and refuel North Atlantic low-pressure systems that enter the Mediterranean during phases of low continental ice volume and high concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases. A comparison with modern reanalysis data shows that current drivers of the amount of rainfall in the Mediterranean share some similarities to those that drive the reconstructed increases in precipitation. Our data cover multiple insolation maxima and are therefore an important benchmark for testing climate model performance.

Understanding the evolution of soil systems on geological time scales has become fundamentally important to predict future landscape development in light of rapid global warming and intensifying anthropogenic impact. Here, we use an innovative uranium isotope-based technique combined with organic carbon isotopes and elemental ratios of sediments from Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania) to reconstruct soil system evolution in the lake's catchment during the last ~16,000 cal yr BP. Uranium isotopes are used to estimated the paleo-sediment residence time, defined as the time elapsed between formation of silt- and clay sized detrital matter and final deposition. The chronology is based on new cryptotephra layers identified in the sediment sequence. The isotope and elemental data are compared to sedimentary properties and pollen from the same sample material to provide a better understanding of past catchment erosion and landscape evolution in the light of climate forcing, vegetation development, and anthropogenic land use. During the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene, when wide parts of the catchment were covered by open vegetation, wetter climates promoted the mobilisation of detrital matter with a short paleo-sediment residence time. This is explained by erosion from deeper parts of the weathering horizon from thin soils. Detrital matter with a longer paleo-sediment residence time, illustrating shallow erosion of thicker soils is deposited in drier climates. The coupling between climatic variations and soil erosion terminates at the Early to Mid-Holocene transition as evidenced by a pronounced shift in uranium isotope ratios indicating that catchment erosion is dominated by shallow erosion of thick soils only. This shift suggests a threshold is crossed in hillslope erosion, possibly as a result of a major change in vegetation cover preventing deep erosion of thin soils at higher elevation. The threshold in catchment erosion is not mirrored by soil development over time, which gradually increases in response to Late Glacial to Holocene warming until human land use during the Late Holocene promotes reduced soil development and soil degradation. Overall, we observe that soil system evolution is progressively controlled by climatic, vegetation, and eventually by human land use over the last ~16,000 years.

Young rifts are shaped by combined tectonic and surface processes and climate, yet few records exist to evaluate the interplay of these processes over an extended period of early rift-basin development. Here, we present the longest and highest resolution record of sediment flux and paleoenvironmental changes when a young rift connects to the global oceans. New results from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 381 in the Corinth Rift show 10s–100s of kyr cyclic variations in basin paleoenvironment as eustatic sea level fluctuated with respect to sills bounding this semi-isolated basin, and reveal substantial corresponding changes in the volume and character of sediment delivered into the rift. During interglacials, when the basin was marine, sedimentation rates were lower (excepting the Holocene), and bioturbation and organic carbon concentration higher. During glacials, the basin was isolated from the ocean, and sedimentation rates were higher (~2–7 times those in interglacials). We infer that reduced vegetation cover during glacials drove higher sediment flux from the rift flanks. These orbital-timescale changes in rate and type of basin infill will likely influence early rift sedimentary and faulting processes, potentially including syn-rift stratigraphy, sediment burial rates, and organic carbon flux and preservation on deep continental margins worldwide.

Expedition 381 scientists Donna J. Shillington Co-Chief Scientist Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University USA Lisa C. McNeill Co-Chief Scientist Ocean and Earth Science University of Southampton National Oceanography Centre Southampton UK Gareth D.O. CarterExpedition Project Manager British Geological Survey The Lyell Centre UKJeremy (Jez) Everest Expedition Project Manager British Geological Survey The Lyell Centre UKErwan Le BerPetrophysics Staff Scientist School of Geography, Geology and the Environment University of Leicester UK Richard Collier Sedimentologist Basin Structure Group School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds UK Aleksandra Cvetkoska Micropaleontologist (diatoms) Department of Animal Ecology and Systematics Justus Liebig University Germany Gino De Gelder Structural Geologist Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris Sorbonne Paris Cité Université Paris Diderot France Paula Diz FerreiroMicropaleontologist (foraminifers) Departamento Geociencias Marinas y Ordenación del Territorio Facultad de Ciencias del Mar Universidad de Vigo Spain Mai-Linh Doan Petrophysicist (physical properties) Université Grenoble Alpes Université Savoie Mont Blanc CNRS, IRD, IFSTTAR, and ISTerre France Mary Ford Structural Geologist/Sedimentologist CRPG UMR 7358 France Also at Université de Lorraine ENSG INP France Robert GawthorpeSedimentologist Department of Earth Science University of Bergen Norway Maria Geraga Micropaleontologist (foraminifers) Department of Geology University of Patras Greece Jack Gillespie Structural Geologist/Sedimentologist Center for Tectonics, Resources, and Exploration (TRaX) Department of Earth Sciences School of Physical Sciences University of Adelaide AustraliaRomain Hemelsdaël Sedimentologist Géosciences Montpellier Université de Montpellier France Emilio Herrero-Bervera Paleomagnetist University of Hawaii at Manoa Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology USAMohammad Ismaiel Petrophysicist (physical properties) University Centre for Earth and Space Sciences University of Hyderabad India Liliane Janikian Sedimentologist Departamento de Ciências do Mar Universidade Federal de São Paulo BrazilKaterina Kouli Micropaleontologist (palynology) Department of Geology and Geoenvironment National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Greece Shunli Li Sedimentologist School of Energy Resources China University of Geosciences (Beijing) China Malka Leah Machlus Petrophysicist (physical properties) Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University USA Also at Department of Physical Sciences Kingsborough Community College City University of New York USA Marco MaffionePaleomagnetist School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Birmingham UK Carol Mahoney Inorganic Geochemist School of Earth and Environment The University of Leeds UK Georgios Michas Petrophysicist (physical properties) Laboratory of Geophysics and Seismology Technological Educational Institute of Crete Greece Clint Miller Inorganic Geochemist Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Rice University USA Casey Nixon Structural Geologist Department of Earth Science University of Bergen NorwaySabire Asli Oflaz Micropaleontologist (foraminifers) Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes” Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Germany Abah Philip Omale Petrophysicist (physical properties) Department of Geology and Geophysics Louisiana State University USAKostas Panagiotopoulos Micropaleontologist (palynology) Institute of Geology and Mineralogy University of Cologne Germany Sofia Pechlivanidou Sedimentologist Department of Earth Science University of Bergen Norway Marcie Phillips Micropaleontologist (nannofossils/diatoms) Institute for Geophysics University of Texas at Austin USA Simone Sauer Inorganic Geochemist Ifremer Department of Marine Geosciences Centre Bretagne France Joana Seguin Organic Geochemist Institute for Ecosystem Research Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel GermanySpyros Sergiou Sedimentologist Laboratory of Marine Geology and Physical Oceanography Department of Geology University of Patras Greece Natalia Zakharova Core-Log-Seismic Integration Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Central Michigan University USA

Archaeobotany is used to discover details on local land uses in prehistoric settlements developed during the middle and beginning of late Holocene. Six archaeological sites from four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey) have pollen and charcoal records showing clear signs of the agrarian systems that had developed in the Mediterranean basin during different cultural phases, from pre-Neolithic to Recent Bronze Age. A selected list of pollen taxa and sums, including cultivated trees, other woody species, crops and annual or perennial synanthropic plants are analysed for land use reconstructions. In general, cultivation has a lower image in palynology than forestry, and past land uses became visible when oakwoods were affected by human activities. On-site palynology allows us to recognise the first influence of humans even before it can be recognised in off-site sequences, and off-site sequences can allow us to determine the area of influence of a site. Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites show similar land use dynamics implying oak exploitation, causing local deforestation, and cultivation of cereal fields in the area or around the site. Although a substantial difference makes the Neolithic influence quite distant from the Bronze Age impact, mixed systems of land exploitation emerged everywhere. Multiple land use activities exist (multifunctional landscapes) at the same time within the area of influence of a site. Since the Neolithic, people have adopted a diffuse pattern of land use involving a combination of diverse activities, using trees–crops–domesticated animals. The most recurrent combination included wood exploitation, field cultivation and animal breeding. The lesson from the past is that the multifunctional land use, combining sylvo-pastoral and crop farming mixed systems, has been widely adopted for millennia, being more sustainable than the monoculture and a promising way to develop our economy.

This paper offers a comparative study of land use and demographic development in northern and southern Greece from the Neolithic to the Byzantine period. Results from summed probability densities (SPD) of archaeological radiocarbon dates and settlement numbers derived from archaeological site surveys are combined with results from cluster-based analysis of published pollen core assemblages to offer an integrated view of human pressure on the Greek landscape through time. We demonstrate that SPDs offer a useful approach to outline differences between regions and a useful complement to archaeological site surveys, evaluated here especially for the onset of the Neolithic and for the Final Neolithic (FN)/Early Bronze Age (EBA) transition. Pollen analysis highlight differences in vegetation between the two sub-regions, but also several parallel changes. The comparison of land cover dynamics between two sub-regions of Greece further demonstrates the significance of the bioclimatic conditions of core locations and that apparent oppositions between regions may in fact be two sides of the same coin in terms of socio-ecological trajectories. We also assess the balance between anthropogenic and climate-related impacts on vegetation and suggest that climatic variability was as an important factor for vegetation regrowth. Finally, our evidence suggests that the impact of humans on land cover is amplified from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) onwards as more extensive herding and agricultural practices are introduced.