This multidisciplinary project will allow a high-resolution reconstruction of paleoenvironmental conditions on the eastern Adriatic during the Late Quaternary eustatic cycle which includes very important periods of environmental change. This type of research is essential in estimating the response of the present-day coastal areas to the future sea-level and climate changes. QMAD will gain on the team and knowledge gathered during the LoLADRIA project and elevate it to the next level.
The objectives
Scientists dealing with marine paleoenvironments of the Adriatic sea have joined forces to reconstruct ecosystems in the central part of Dalmatia on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea. Using stratigraphy, micropaleontology, geochemistry, aDNA and geophysics, they will be track sediments from fluvial/lake to deeper marine environments to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental evolution on a relatively short transect less than 100 km in length (Eastern MAD to Lake Prokljan in the Krka River estuary). This research will produce climate and environmental proxy data and as such will also insights into Late Quaternary landscapes and their suitability human migration along of the Eastern Adriatic coast. The Krka delta plain existed during pre and post LGM periods and study of its development will help to complete the picture of the environments that the Late Upper Paleolithic hunters and gatherers encountered on the Eastern Adriatic.
(1) identify and recover the best sedimentary archives that store major changes in the
depositional environment ;
(2) use seismic and lithologic data to reconstruct the paleolandscape geomorphology;
(3) establish a chronological framework of past environmental change;
(4) reconstruct the local-to-regional expression of (hydro-)climatic change in light of global-scale changes in climate boundary conditions;
(5) discuss the impacts of site-specific factors for human occupation during the terrestrial phases of MIS 3 and MIS 4 into the Holocene and compare with regional long-term climate records (Alpine, Apennine, Dinaric and Balkan regions);
(6) link archaeological data with dated sea-level and landscape changes to reconstruct possible human contacts between different regions during Falling-Lowstand-Transgressive Tracts and the role of the Krka river that divides the eastern Adriatic coast and its role as a land/floodplain bridge.
The paleoenvironments
