Reconstruction of the Holocene vegetation in the central Negev Desert,Israel, on the basis of palynological data on the Atzmaut zoogenic deposit

Zoogenic deposits are among a few promising sources of information on the history of arid ecosystems. To reconstruct the former vegetation of the Negev Desert, we performed palynological analysis of the Atzmaut zoogenic deposit that had been formed over the past 6000 years. The results made it possible to reveal seasonality in the use of this rockshelter, to reconstruct the dynamics of vegetation, and to estimate the effect of climatic changes and livestock grazing on the vegetation in the central part of the Negev Desert.