The timing and character of coarse siliciclastic sediment delivered to deep-water environments in active rift basins is governed by the complicated interactions of tectonics, climate, eustasy, hinterland geology, and shelf process regime. The stratigraphic archives of deep-water syn-rift basin-fills provide records of palaeoenvironmental changes (e.g. climate and vegetation) in onshore catchments, particularly where they are connected by narrow shelves. However, a chronostratigraphically constrained record of climatic fluctuations and process responses in the hinterland source area recorded in deep-water deposits is rare. Here, we integrate a fully cored research borehole with outcrop exposures of deep-water syn-rift stratigraphy to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental change within the stratigraphy of the West Xylokastro Fault Block in the Corinth Rift, Greece. We used palaeomagnetic and palynological analyses from borehole core samples to develop a chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental model, which we compare to global records of Early-Mid Pleistocene climate and eustatic change. This framework allows establishment of a chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental context to stratigraphic variability encountered in outcrop and in the borehole. Our results show that the ∼240 m thick studied succession was deposited from ∼1.1 to 0.6 Ma across the Early-to Mid-Pleistocene transition. During the Early Pleistocene, obliquity-paced climatic variability is largely coherent with vegetation changes of forest coverage within catchments on the southern margin of the Corinth Rift. Large magnitude, eccentricity-paced cyclicity dominant after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition can alter sediment supply from onshore catchments during the warming stages of severe interglacials where expansion of forest cover may trap sediment within catchments. Conglomeratic grade sediment delivery to the deep-water is enhanced during glacial periods, interpreted to reflect sparse forest cover and large winter storms, and during semi-arid, grassland-dominated interglacial highstands during severe interglacials. Base-level rise during minor interglacials is easily outpaced by high sediment supply and is seldom represented stratigraphically. The study demonstrates the value of integrated palynological and sedimentological studies, whilst applying a conservative approach to interpretation when dealing with sparse palynological records from proximal deep-water stratigraphy. The case study provides conceptual models where climatic and vegetation changes can begin to be incorporated as a key control on sediment flux from onshore drainage basins to deep-water syn-rift successions.

The sediment record from Lake Ohrid (Southwestern Balkans) represents the longest continuous lake archive in Europe, extending back to 1.36 Ma. We reconstruct the vegetation history based on pollen analysis of the DEEP core to reveal changes in vegetation cover and forest diversity during glacial–interglacial (G–IG) cycles and early basin development. The earliest lake phase saw a significantly different composition rich in relict tree taxa and few herbs. Subsequent establishment of a permanent steppic herb association around 1.2 Ma implies a threshold response to changes in moisture availability and temperature and gradual adjustment of the basin morphology. A change in the character of G–IG cycles during the Early–Middle Pleistocene Transition is reflected in the record by reorganization of the vegetation from obliquity- to eccentricity-paced cycles. Based on a quantitative analysis of tree taxa richness, the first large-scale decline in tree diversity occurred around 0.94 Ma. Subsequent variations in tree richness were largely driven by the amplitude and duration of G–IG cycles. Significant tree richness declines occurred in periods with abundant dry herb associations, pointing to aridity affecting tree population survival. Assessment of long-term legacy effects between global climate and regional vegetation change reveals a significant influence of cool interglacial conditions on subsequent glacial vegetation composition and diversity. This effect is contrary to observations at high latitudes, where glacial intensity is known to control subsequent interglacial vegetation, and the evidence demonstrates that the Lake Ohrid catchment functioned as a refugium for both thermophilous and temperate tree species.

Thorough faunal (benthic foraminifera, ostracods, molluscs) and palynomorph analyses as well as magnetic susceptibility measurements performed on the Piraeus coastal plain sedimentary sequences have shed light on the paleoenvironmental evolution of the area since ca. 9000 cal BP. Benthic and palynomorph assemblages along with magnetic susceptibility suggest a typical lagoonal environment with significant freshwater inputs at the eastern part of the plain after 8700 cal BP. Between 7500 and 5400 cal BP, microfaunal assemblages, mollusc fauna and magnetic susceptibility suggest a shallow marine paleoenvironment, with Piraeus forming a tied island in the center of the bay. Since ca. 4800 cal BP a closed oligohaline lagoon is evidenced in the western part of the Piraeus plain further developed to a marsh after 2800 cal BP, while a coastal environment associated with the fluvio-deltaic system of Kifissos and Korydallos Rivers is continually developing to the west. Signs of cultivation and grazing activities in the area are evidenced since the Early Bronze Age, culminating during the Classical Period. A comparison with a well-dated marine record, recovered from the nearby shallow Elefsis Bay, provides a reasonable estimation of  5 mm/yr for the absolute sea level rise rate in the inner Saronikos Gulf during the Mid-Holocene.

The anhydrosugars levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan have been regarded a suitable molecular indicator of natural biomass combustion. Here we evaluate the summed anhydrosugars (SAS) as paleofire indicator in a 6000 year-long fossil core from Agios Floros fen, Peloponnese, Greece, by analyzing charcoal fragments in parallel throughout the sediment sequence. Modern surface soil samples from the same region were analysed for presence of SAS, confirming the biomarker as an indicator of recent fire activity. The highest SAS concentrations in the fossil core were found in sections representing periods of wet conditions both on local and regional scale, and regionally widespread arboreal vegetation. Low or absence of SAS in the fossil core is associated with periods of dryness, regional dominance of non-arboreal vegetation and a fen rather than lake ecosystem at the site. Micro-charcoal fragments were generally more abundant under these conditions. This suggests that SAS yield and deposition may vary with fuel availability and fire behavior which in turn is affected by climate, local moisture and vegetation type. Forest fires result in more SAS compared to grass fires. SAS yield is also favored by low-temperature fires sustained under wet climate conditions. Preservation of SAS is likely to be compromised in the only seasonally wet fen ecosystem under the dry and warm Mediterranean climate conditions. The moist and shallow conditions in the wetland during hot summer months are probably promoting oxidation and biodegradation of the labile SAS molecules compared to the more robust charcoal fragments. Thus, a multiproxy approach - using several proxies, both for fire, hydroclimate and vegetation change - is preferred when aiming to reconstruct past biomass burning from wetland ecosystems in a Mediterranean environment. The micro-charcoal record from Agios Floros reveals significant fire activity between 4400-2800 cal yr BP. This partly overlaps the Bronze Age period, associated with intense human environmental interaction and climate change in this area of Peloponnese, Greece.

The multi-proxy investigation of the deep-marine Kottafi Hill section (KHS), a part of the carbonate system of the Miocene Pakhna Formation, Cyprus, involved such proxies as calcareous nannofossil analysis, measurements of the oxygen and carbon isotope composition of the planktonic foraminifer Orbulina universa, and determination of the pollen and palynomorph contents, revealed the importance of these sedimentary sequences in the assessment of the impact of major global events during the middle Miocene on the regional scale. The KHS spans the 20.89–11.6 Ma time interval, during which eighteen OC-rich siltstone intercalated laminae have been deposited under warm and humid climate at 15.5–11.6 Ma. These layers can be possibly considered as the precursors of sapropelic layers mostly developed in the eastern Mediterranean Basin during Pliocene–Holocene. The global glacial events Mi3a–Mi5, traced by δ18O planktonic foraminifera records in the KHS, represent the stepwise cooling phase during the middle Miocene Climate Transition.