Pollen-Based Paleoenvironmental and Paleoclimatic Change at Lake Ohrid (South-Eastern Europe) During the Past 500 Ka
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Biogeosciences, 13, 1423–1437, 2016 www.biogeosciences.net/13/1423/2016/ doi:10.5194/bg-13-1423-2016 © Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Pollen-based paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic change at Lake Ohrid (south-eastern Europe) during the past 500 ka Laura Sadori1, Andreas Koutsodendris2, Konstantinos Panagiotopoulos3, Alessia Masi1, Adele Bertini4, Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout5, Alexander Francke6, Katerina Kouli7, Sébastien Joannin8, Anna Maria Mercuri9, Odile Peyron8, Paola Torri9, Bernd Wagner6, Giovanni Zanchetta10, Gaia Sinopoli1, and Timme H. Donders11 1Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy 2Paleoenvironmental Dynamics Group, Institute of Earth Sciences, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany 3Institute of Geography and Education, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany 4Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze, Florence, Italy 5HNHP – Histoire naturelle de l’Homme préhistorique, UMR 7194 CNRS, Département de Préhistoire, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, France 6Institute for Geology and Mineralogy, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany 7Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece 8CNRS UMR 5554, Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France 9Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy 10Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy 11Palaeoecology, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands Correspondence to: Alessia Masi ([email protected]) Received: 31 August 2015 – Published in Biogeosciences Discuss.: 17 September 2015 Revised: 20 December 2015 – Accepted: 8 February 2016 – Published: 8 March 2016 Abstract. Lake Ohrid is located at the border between FY- According to the age model, the studied sequence cov- ROM (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia) and Al- ers the last ∼ 500 000 years at a millennial-scale resolu- bania and formed during the latest phases of Alpine oroge- tion (∼ 1.6 ka) and records the major vegetation and climate nesis. It is the deepest, the largest and the oldest tectonic changes that occurred during the last 12 (13 only pro parte) lake in Europe. To better understand the paleoclimatic and marine isotope stages (MIS). Our results indicate that there paleoenvironmental evolution of Lake Ohrid, deep drilling is a general good correspondence between forested/non- was carried out in 2013 within the framework of the Sci- forested periods and glacial–interglacial cycles of the marine entific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions (SCOP- isotope stratigraphy. The record shows a progressive change SCO) project that was funded by the International Continen- from cooler and wetter to warmer and drier interglacial con- tal Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP). Preliminary results ditions. This shift in temperature and moisture availability is indicate that lacustrine sedimentation of Lake Ohrid started visible also in vegetation during glacial periods. between 1.2 and 1.9 Ma ago. Here we present new pollen The period corresponding to MIS11 (pollen assemblage data (selected percentage and concentration taxa/groups) of zone OD-10, 428–368 kaBP) is dominated by montane trees the uppermost ∼ 200 m of the 569 m long DEEP core drilled such as conifers. Mesophilous elements such as decidu- in the depocentre of Lake Ohrid. The study is the fruit of a ous and semi-deciduous oaks dominate forest periods of cooperative work carried out in several European palynolog- MIS5 (PASZ OD-3, 129–70 kaBP) and MIS1 (PASZ OD- ical laboratories. The age model of this part of the core is 1, 14 kaBP to present). Moreover, MIS7 (PASZ OD-6, 245– based on 10 tephra layers and on tuning of biogeochemical 190 ka) shows a very high interglacial variability, with al- proxy data to orbital parameters. ternating expansions of montane and mesophilous arboreal Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1424 L. Sadori et al.: Pollen-based paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic change, Lake Ohrid taxa. Grasslands (open vegetation formations requiring rel- the last ∼ 300 ka (Follieri et al., 1988, 1989), Ioannina atively humid conditions) characterize the earlier glacial in western Greece, spanning the last ∼ 480 ka (Tzedakis, phases of MIS12 (PASZ OD-12, 488–459 ka), MIS10 (cor- 1994b), Kopais, in south-eastern Greece, spanning the responding to the central part of PASZ OD-10, 428–366 ka) last ∼ 500 ka (Okuda et al., 2001), and Tenaghi Philip- and MIS8 (PASZ OD-7, 288–245 ka). Steppes (open vege- pon, the ∼ 1.35 million-year old European lacustrine record tation formations typical of dry environments) prevail dur- from north-eastern Greece (Tzedakis et al., 2006; Pross et ing MIS6 (OD-5 and OD-4, 190–129 ka) and during MIS4-2 al., 2015). In the Near East, long continental sedimentary (PASZ OD-2, 70–14 ka). sequences have been studied in Lake Van (eastern Turkey) Our palynological results support the notion that Lake spanning the last ∼ 600 ka (Litt et al., 2014), in Lake Urmia Ohrid has been a refugium area for both temperate and mon- (north-western Iran) spanning ∼ 200 ka (Djamali et al., 2008) tane trees during glacials. Closer comparisons with other and in lake Yamounneh (Lebanon) spanning the last ∼ 400 ka long southern European and Near Eastern pollen records will (Gasse et al., 2015). However, these sediment cores have not be achieved through ongoing high-resolution studies. been studied with high temporal resolution, which is a pre- condition for a deeper understanding of the palaeoenviron- mental and palaeoclimatic evolution of terrestrial ecosystems (Brauer et al., 2007; Magny et al., 2013; Moreno et al., 2015). 1 Introduction Southern European long pollen records have caught the at- tention of many researchers, as these archives are arguably The study of past climate change is pivotal to better un- among the best available sources of information for past derstand current climate change (Tzedakis et al., 2009) and vegetation and climate changes (e.g. Tzedakis et al., 1997, its impact on terrestrial ecosystems, particularly at the mid- 2001; Pross et al., 2015). Molecular genetic data revealed latitudes, where human activities are concentrated. It is well considerable divergence between populations of many ar- established that the study of fossil pollen contained in sedi- boreal species in southern refugial centres in Iberia, Italy, ments fundamentally contributes to the reconstruction of ter- the Balkans and Greece. Arboreal refugia and migration restrial palaeoenvironmental changes that occurred during paths, identified by both biogeographical, palaeobotanical the Quaternary, and constitutes the only quantitative proxy and phylogeographical studies (Petit et al., 2005; Cheddadi that can provide continuous and accurate representations of et al., 2006; Magri et al., 2006; Liepelt et al., 2009; Médail vegetation changes. This fact was already clear at the end of and Diadema, 2009; Tzedakis, 2009; Tzedakis et al., 2013), the 1960s when the pioneer pollen study of Wijmstra (1969) sometimes confirmed the speculated locations (e.g. Bennett at Tenaghi Philippon (Greece) was published. The study of et al., 1991) and their link to modern biodiversity hotspots, long lacustrine pollen records from southern Europe is par- but most mechanisms still have to be fully understood. From ticularly important, as at such latitudes, glaciations have not this perspective it is essential to compare the locations of caused stratigraphic gaps in lacustrine systems, unlike north- refugia and those of regional hotspots of plant biodiversity. ern European sequences (e.g. Zagwijn, 1992). The relation- Located in a strategic position between higher-latitude and ship of terrestrial vegetation with terrestrial, marine and ice lower-latitude climate systems, Lake Ohrid is at the bor- core records is a further step in the understanding of global der between the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedo- climate dynamics and lead–lag relations. A broader corre- nia (FYROM) and Albania. As one of the biosphere reserves spondence between the climate signals provided by terres- of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural trial pollen records and marine oxygen isotope records has Organization (UNESCO), it is a transboundary World Her- been observed (e.g. Tzedakis et al., 1997, 2001). Subsequent itage Site in the Balkans. It is thought to be the oldest extant studies of both terrestrial (pollen) and marine (planktonic lake in Europe, with an uninterrupted lacustrine sedimenta- and benthic oxygen isotopes) proxies in marine cores from tion probably starting between 1.2 and 1.9 Ma (Wagner et the Iberian margin confirmed the mostly in-phase relation al., 2014; Lindhorst et al., 2015). The sensitive ecosystem of Mediterranean and North Atlantic climate variability dur- response of the Dessarete lakes Ohrid and Prespa to climate ing the Late Pleistocene (e.g. Sánchez Goñi et al., 1999; variability during the last glacial–interglacial cycle has been Tzedakis et al., 2004b). But the exact phase relations to ma- documented in several studies dealing with terrestrial vege- rine systems, regional variations in vegetation response, and tation composition and land cover (Lézine et al., 2010; Wag- exact locations of refugia are still poorly known