Understanding Quaternary variations in water availability in the Near East as a key for future projections of regional environmental change

近东地区第四纪的环境和气候条件是学术界感兴趣的问题，对其当今的社会经济发展也具有重要意义。将调查晚更新世和全新世记录，以提高对近东环境和气候波动范围的认识。环境和气候条件，特别是第四纪较暖时期的环境和气候条件，可被视为一个地区未来气候变化的潜在类比，该地区在供水和可持续利用水资源方面已经面临巨大问题。现有的和新开发的定量古环境和古气候重建工具将基于现代校准数据集和多元统计分析。此外，还将调查约旦河谷早、中、晚更新世时期的考古发掘遗址，约旦河谷是人类走出非洲的迁徙通道。大量的考古发掘发现与迄今为止关于迁徙浪潮和现代人出现期间的总体环境和气候条件的罕见信息形成鲜明对比。拟议的研究结果将提供有关这些时期自然背景的新资料。

The Quatemary environmental and dimatic conditions in the Near East are of academic interest, and also significant for its present-day socioeconomic development. Late Pleistocene and Holocene records will be investigated to improve the knowledge with respect to the range of the environmental and dimatic fluctuations in the Near East. Environmental and climatic conditions especially during the warmer periods of the Quaternary may be regarded as potential analogies for future climate change in a region which already faces enormous problems in water supply and sustainable use of water resources. Existing and newly developed tools for quantitative palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstructions will be applied based on modern calibration data sets and multivariate statistical analysis. In addition, archaeological excavation sites of early, middle and late Pleistocene age will be investigated in the Jordan Valley which served as a migration corridor during the spread of hominins Out of Africa. The large number of archaeological finds from excavations is in clear contrast to the rare information available thus far with respect to the overall environmental setting and the climate conditions during the migration waves and the emergence of modern people. New information concerning the natural background during these periods will be provided as a result of the proposed research.