Landscape changes in the Saharo-Arabian area during the last glacial cycle

Reconstruction of palaeolandscapes for intervals with different climatic conditions helps the definition and study of regional trends in environmental evolution of the earthʹs surface territory as a response to global climatic change. Analyses of palaeogeographical, palaeobotanical, geomorphological and archaeological data from 162 sites over the Saharo-Arabian area let us reconstruct palaeolandscapes for the intervals 20-18 ka B.P., 9-8 ka B.P., and 6-5 ka B.P., and the present potential landscapes, and to compile maps at a 1/15,000,000 scale. Classification and detailed mapping of the present landscapes (at a 1/5,000,000 scale) was based on the analyses of, first, current factors of landscape differentiation, such as climate, relief, vegetation and soils, and, second, of the assessment of their spacio-temporal changes during the last 20,000 years. This allowed us to distinguish 172 evolutionary-chronological variations within 80 genus of landscapes in the Saharo-Arabian area.