DATE2016-05-30 17:14:47
IDABSTRACT20160530171447-1060
CONTACTpanagiotopoulos.k@uni-koeln.de
PRESENTATIONORAL-PLENARY
INVITED0
IDSESSION3
TITLEEARLY PLEISTOCENE (> 1.2 MA) VEGETATION AND CLIMATE CHANGES IN SE EUROPE BASED ON FIRST RESULTS OF PALYNOLOGICAL AND BIOMARKER ANALYSES OF LAKE OHRID SEDIMENTS
AUTHORSKonstantinos Panagiotopoulos (1), Jens Holtvoeth (2), Adele Bertini (3), Katerina Kouli (4), Timme Donders (5), Laura Sadori (6), Richard Pancost (2), Bernd Wagner (1), Martin Melles (1)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. Faculty Of Geology And Geoenvironment, National And Kapodistrian University Of Athens, Athens (Greece)
  2. Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Terra, University Of Florence, Florence (Italy)
  3. Quaternary Geology Group, Institute For Geology And Mineralogy, University Of Cologne, Cologne (Germany)
  4. Organic Geochemistry Unit, School Of Chemistry, University Of Bristol, Bristol (United Kingdom)
  5. Palaeoecology, Department Of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht (Netherlands)
  6. Dipartimento Di Biologia Ambientale, Rome University Sapienza, Rome (Italy)
ABSTRACTOur current knowledge about Early Pleistocene climate and flora in the Mediterranean region is based mostly on fragmentary terrestrial archives complemented by marine cores. In an effort to improve our understanding of the climate and flora evolution over this interval, a new 569m-long core was retrieved in 2013 within the frame of the ICDP drilling at Lake Ohrid. Preliminary analyses show continuous sedimentation over the last ~1.2 million years and indicate major shifts in organic carbon, pollen and diatom assemblages corresponding to the characteristic marine isotope stage (MIS) stratigraphy. Considering the reduced global ice volume and shorter climatic cycles paced by obliquity observed in marine cores during this period, the research objectives of this new ICDP project are: (i) the determination of the floristic diversity in a southern refugium during the formation of Lake Ohrid and prior to the onset of the Mid-Pleistocene transition with a focus on relict subtropical species, (ii) the reconstruction of environmental and hydrological history of Lake Ohrid, (iii) the identification of the main drivers of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem change in the Ohrid Basin since the formation of the lake until MIS 35 under an obliquity-controlled climate regime (41-kyr cycles), and (iv) the quantitative reconstruction and assessment of the nature and amplitude of climate variability during this interval in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Here, we report the first results of palynological and lipid biomarker analyses and reconstruct the response of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems to climate variability over the Early Pleistocene at Ohrid. The Early Pleistocene palynoflora of the region is quite diverse and includes several relict species such as Carya, Liquidambar, Pterocarya, Cedrus, and Tsuga. Lipid biomarker analysis indicates rather limited soil erosion even during glacial intervals, suggesting that the soil organic matter pool remained stabilized by persistent vegetation. The first palynological and biomarker results suggest a rather densely vegetated landscape in the study region. Several tree species are present during glacials, while plant diversity increases during interglacials suggesting higher temperatures and an increase in moisture availability. Ongoing high-resolution analyses will elucidate patterns of ecological succession and the impact of centennial climate reversals on landscape openness as well as on terrestrial and aquatic vegetation.
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