Speleothems (stalagmites, stalactites and flowstones) are known to be highly sensitive recorders of past hydroclimatic conditions. Precise chronologies and high temporal resolution are a particular strength of speleothem-based climate reconstruction. The vast limestone formations of the Zagros and Taurus Mountains are highly karstified and hundreds of caves can be found. For MITRA, several new caves containing abundant actively growing and fossil samples have been identified and Holocene samples have been collected. Some of these caves have already revealed their high potential in paleoclimatic studies (e.g., Flohr et al., 2017; Mehterian et al., 2017; Carolin et al., 2018; Sinha et al., 2019; Bosomworth, 2021; Fleitmann et al., 2025), and stalagmites hava already been collected from several caves in Iraqi-Kurdistan, Eastern Türkiye, and Iran. 

WP1 is led by Prof. Dominik Fleitmann who will supervise two PhD-students: Mr Peyman Parvizi, and Mr Yugandhar Nighojkar. Working on WP1 will also be MITRA project manager Dr Alice Paine, Dr Frederick Held, and Mr Alistair Morgan. 

Held, F. et al. (2025) Hydrological variability in the Black Sea region during the last 670,000 years recorded in multi-proxy speleothem records from northern Türkiye. Quaternary Science Reviews 367: 109534

Morgan, A.W. et al. (2025) Societal responses to cold-season rainfall variability: a speleothem perspective on Byzantine and Hittite climate interactions in Late Holocene Türkiye and southeast Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews359: 109365

Fleitmann, D. et al. (2025) Mid-Holocene hydroclimatic optimum recorded in a stalagmite from Shalaii Cave, northern Iraq. Quaternary Science Reviews356: 109286

Held, F. et al. (2024)  Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles of the penultimate and last glacial period recorded in stalagmites from Turkiye. Nature Communications15: 1183

Jacobson, M.J. et al. (2021). Heterogenous late Holocene climate in the Eastern Mediterranean – the Kocain Cave record from SW Turkey. Geophysical Research Letters 48

Jacobson, M.J., et al. (2022). Settlement, environment, and climate change in SW Anatolia: Dynamics of regional variation and the end of Antiquity. PLOS ONE 17

Koc, K. et al. (2020) Black carbon traces of human activities in stalagmites from Turkey. Journal of Archaeological Science 123.

Flohr, P., et al. (2017) Late Holocene droughts in the Fertile Crescent recorded in a speleothem from northern Iraq. Geophysical Research Letters44: 1528–1536.

Badertscher, S. et al. (2014) Speleothems as sensitive recorders of volcanic eruptions – the Bronze Age Minoan eruption recorded in a stalagmite from Turkey. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 392: 58-65.

Göktürk, O.M. et al. (2011) Climate on the Southern Black Sea coast during the Holocene: Implications from the Sofular Cave record. Quaternary Science Reviews 30: 2433-2445.

Badertscher, S. et al. (2011) Pleistocene water intrusions from the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas into the Black Sea. Nature Geoscience 4: 236-239.

Fleitmann, D. et al. (2009) Timing and climatic imprint of Dansgaard-Oeschger events in stalagmites from Northern Turkey. Geophysical Research Letters 36