The Acridian plagues, a new Holocene and Pleistocene palaeoclimatic indicator

Joaquín Meco Cabrera , Nicole Petit-Maire (1) , Javier Ballester , Juan F. Betancort , Antonio Juan G. Ramos

1 LAMPEA - Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique

Five palaeosols, intercalated within the Quaternary dune beds of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote (Canary Islands), off the Moroccan coast, mark wetter climatic episodes. In all of them, billions of calcified insect ootheca testify to past occurrences of Acridian plagues, such as those reaching the western Sahara following heavy rainfall events over the Sahel. The most massive infestation is in the Holocene, and should coincide with the climax of Saharo-Sahelian humidity at the peak of the present interglacial

Mots clés: Iles Canaries; Espagne; Afrique du Nord; Fuerteventura; Lanzarote; Pléistocène; Holocène; climat; environnement; insecte; pédologie; géoarchéologie

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Joaquín Meco Cabrera, Nicole Petit-Maire, Javier Ballester, Juan F. Betancort, Antonio Juan G. Ramos. The Acridian plagues, a new Holocene and Pleistocene palaeoclimatic indicator. Global and Planetary Change, 2010, 72 (4), pp.318-320. ⟨10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.01.007⟩. ⟨halshs-00584952⟩