Reconstruction of lake-level changes in lake Xinias, central Greece, during the last 40 000 years

Abstract

The investigation of Lake Xinias, Greece, deals with lake-level changes since about 40 000 B.P. Particular effort was made to obtain a reconstruction of lake level during the Last Glacial Maximum, at about 18 000 B.P. The reconstruction was based on a transect of sediment cores. The cores were pollen-stratigraphically correlated, and the interpretation of the sediment stratigraphy was based on sediment chemical and mineral magnetic analyses. The chronology was based on accelerator and conventional radiocarbon datings. The most striking change was a lake-level lowering at about 32 000 B.P., resulting in an overgrowing of the whole lake. The lake level probably remained generally low until somewhat before 15 000 B.P. The period around the Last Glacial Maximum must have been characterized by a low lake level, which is in contrast to the hitherto common opinion. Additional investigations are required to demonstrate that the lake-level changes reconstructed in Lake Xinias are regionally significant and record climatic changes. However, it may already be suggested that the conflict between pollen and lake-level evidence, which hitherto has produced controversy about the glacial climate, perhaps does not exist. The low lake level in Lake Xinias around the Last Glacial Maximum is in accordance with the pollen evidence of steppe vegetation, both recording a dry climate. Another distinct lowering occurred around the Late Würmian–Holocene boundary, at about 10 000 B.P. Some minor lowerings are recorded also during the Holocene, e.g. at about 6000–5000 and 3000 B.P.