DATE2016-05-30 12:40:34
IDABSTRACT20160530124034-0990
CONTACTakouli@geol.uoa.gr
PRESENTATIONPOSTER
INVITED0
IDSESSION3
TITLEVEGETATION AND CLIMATE CHANGES IN THE SOUTHERN BALKAN PENINSULA (SE EUROPE) DURING THE LAST 500 KA: THE LAKE OHRID RECORD
AUTHORSKaterina Kouli (1), Kostas Panagiotopoulos (2), Andreas Koutsodendris (3), Alessia Masi (4), Laura Sadori (4), Adele Bertini (5), Nathalie Combourieu-nebout (6), Timme H. Donders (7), Alexander Francke (2), Sébastien Joannin (8), Anna Maria Mercuri (9), Odile Peyron (8), Gaia Sinopoli (4), Paola Torri (9), Bernd Wagner (2), Giovanni Zanchetta (10)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. Faculty Of Geology And Geoenvironment, National And Kapodistrian University Of Athens Athens (Greece)
  2. Institute For Geology And Mineralogy, University Of Cologne Cologne (Germany)
  3. Institute Of Earth Sciences, Heidelberg University Heidelberg (Germany)
  4. Dipartimento Di Biologia Ambientale, Università Di Roma La Sapienza Roma (Italy)
  5. Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Terra, Università Di Firenze Firenze (Italy)
  6. Département De Préhistoire, Muséum National D’histoire Naturelle Paris (France)
  7. Department Of Physical Geography, Utrecht University Utrecht (Netherlands)
  8. Institut Des Sciences De L’evolution De Montpellier, Université De Montpellier Montpellier (France)
  9. Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Vita, Università Di Modena E Reggio Emilia Modena (Italy)
  10. Dipartimento Di Science Della Terra, University Of Pisa Pisa (Italy)
ABSTRACTLake Ohrid, between the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia-FYROM and Albania, is a biodiversity hotspot in the southern Balkans. Lake Ohrid, surrounded by mountains, is a sensitive archive for the study of past environmental and climatic variability and is considered to be the oldest extant lake in Europe. At an intermediate altitude of 693m Lake Ohrid is located between higher- and lower-latitude climate systems. Within the framework of the International Continental Drilling Project, a deep drilling campaign was carried out by the Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid (SCOPSCO) Project in 2013. The initial results of the 569-m-long sediment sequence from the central DEEP site, show continuous sedimentation with clear glacial-interglacial cycles spanning the past ~1.2 Ma (Wagner et al., 2014). The chronology of the top 246m is based on eleven tephra layers and tuning biogeochemical proxy data to orbital parameters (Francke et al., 2015). The pollen data presented here from the top 200m of the DEEP site are the outcome of cooperative work between several European palynological laboratories. Major vegetation and climatic changes of the past ~500 ka are documented at millennial-scale resolution (~1.6 ka). Observed alternations between forested and non-forested periods are in good correspondence with glacial-interglacial cycles based on marine isotope stratigraphy (from MIS 1 to MIS 13). The continuous record of glacial-interglacial vegetation shows that trees were growing in the Lake Ohrid catchment even during glacial periods, suggesting that the lake basin has been a refugium for both temperate and montane trees. Furthermore, a clear shift from relatively cool/humid interglacial conditions prior to ~288 ka BP to warmer and drier conditions during recent interglacial periods (last ~130 ka), suggests changing patterns toward a more Mediterranean type climate. This Mediterraneanization, which occurred between 245 and 190 ka (within MIS 7), is characterized by high forest variability during warm phases. Ongoing downcore and high resolution analysis of the site will provide a more accurate correlation of the entire sequence with other long southern European and Near Eastern pollen and Mediterranean isotope records. References: Francke et al. (2016) Biogeosciences 13, 1179-1196; Sadori et al. (2016) Biogeosciences 13, 1423-1437; Wagner et al. (2014) Sci. Dril. 17, 19-29.
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