Abstract
Abstract. A Late Glacial to Holocene sediment sequence (Co1260, 717 cm) from Lake Dojran, located at the boarder of the F.Y.R. of Macedonia and Greece, has been investigated to provide information on climate variability in the Balkan region. A robust age-model was established from 13 radiocarbon ages, and indicates that the base of the sequence was deposited at ca. 12 500 cal yr BP, when the lake-level was low. Variations in sedimentological (H2O, TOC, CaCO3, TS, TOC/TN, TOC/TS, grain-size, XRF, δ18Ocarb, δ13Ccarb, δ13Corg) data were linked to hydro-acoustic data and indicate that warmer and more humid climate conditions characterised the remaining period of the Younger Dryas until the beginning of the Holocene. The Holocene exhibits significant environmental variations, including the 8.2 and 4.2 ka cooling events, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. Human induced erosion processes in the catchment of Lake Dojran intensified after 2800 cal yr BP.
Highlights
AcldSidmictaitioeencanhl carneegcsoeridns the Balkan with highresolution sedimentary information from this region are needed to get a better understanding of Late Glacial to Holocene climatic variability and anthropogenic activity and their spatial variability.OAscsehoawnn bSycaiceomnpcaerison of records from lakes Prespa and Ohrid (Leng et al, 2010; Wagner et al, 2010), shallower lakes often react more sensitive to environmental change
The undulated shape of the hard reflector at 7 m and the weaker reflections below suggest somewhat disturbed sedimentation as it might have occurred during a lake level lowstand
As Lake Dojran is a relatively shallow lake for its size, paleoclimatic change and human interactions seem to have had a significant impact on lake hydrology, allochthonous supply of organic material (OM) and clastic material, and lake productivity
Summary
Several paleoenvironmental records spanning the entire Holocene already exist from the Balkan region (e.g., Bordon et al, 2009; Wagner et al, 2009; Vogel et al, 2010a; Peyron et al, 2011; Panagiotopoulos et al, 2012), some suffer from poor radiocarbon chronologies (Wagner et al, 2009; Vogel et al, 2010a), or are inconsistent in terms of spatial variability and short-term climate events (Magny et al, 2003, 2009; Tzedakis, 2007; Berger and Guilaine, 2009). A lake-level lowering of 6 m between 1955 and 2000 was mainly caused by irrigation and canalisation of the former outlet, River Doiranitis (Griffiths et al, 2002; Zacharias et al, 2002;TShoteiriaCanrdyPoestkpovhsekir, e2004; Manley et al, 2008). This lake level decrease led to eutrophication and is well recorded in the chemical, biological and stable isotope data of the surface sediments (Veljanoska-Sarafiloska et al., 2001; Griffiths et al, 2002). The sediments are poorly dated and there were likely variations in the sedimentation rates including major hiatuses, probably due to significant lake level changes, in the lateral coring locations
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