Abstract
Abstract. A new high-resolution pollen and NPP (non-pollen palynomorph) analysis has been performed on the sediments of Lake Dojran, a transboundary lake located at the border between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The sequence covers the last 12 500 years and provides information on the vegetational dynamics of the Late Glacial and Holocene for the southern Balkans. Robust age model, sedimentological diatom, and biomarker analyses published previously have been the base for a multi-perspective interpretation of the new palynological data. Pollen analysis revealed that the Late Glacial is characterized by steppic taxa with prevailing Amaranthaceae, Artemisia and Poaceae. The arboreal vegetation starts to rise after 11 500 yr BP, taking a couple of millennia to be definitively attested. Holocene vegetation is characterized by the dominance of mesophilous plants. The Quercus robur type and Pinus are the most abundant taxa, followed by the Quercus cerris type, the Quercus ilex type and Ostrya–Carpinus orientalis. The first attestation of human presence can be presumed at 5000 yr BP from the contemporary presence of cereals, Juglans and Rumex. A drop in both pollen concentration and influx together with a δ18Ocarb shift indicates increasing aridity and precedes clear and continuous human signs since 4000 yr BP. Also, a correlation between Pediastrum boryanum and fecal stanol suggests that the increase in nutrients in the water is related to human presence and pasture. An undoubted expansion of human-related plants occurs since 2600 yr BP when cereals, arboreal cultivated and other synanthropic non-cultivated taxa are found. A strong reduction in arboreal vegetation occurred at 2000 yr BP, when the Roman Empire impacted a landscape undergoing climate dryness in the whole Mediterranean area. In recent centuries the human impact still remains high but spots of natural vegetation are preserved. The Lake Dojran multi-proxy analysis including pollen data provides clear evidence of the importance of this approach in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Cross-interpretation of several proxies allows us to comprehend past vegetation dynamics and human impact in the southern Balkans.
Highlights
High-resolution terrestrial archives from lakes and caves are the basis for understanding past climate changes and vegetation dynamics
While a lot of Spanish, French, Italian and Greek lacustrine records have been studied since the 1970s, the vegetation dynamics of the central Balkans remained for a long time under-investigated due to a variety of natural, historical and political circumstances
The pollen record covers the environmental changes from the Late Glacial until today passing from a natural undisturbed landscape to one in which increasing anthropogenic influences overlap climate change
Summary
High-resolution terrestrial archives from lakes and caves are the basis for understanding past climate changes and vegetation dynamics. Recently has the scientific community appreciated all the potentialities of the area, which is quite rich in natural lakes, and a number of international teams are currently carrying out interdisciplinary investigations in the area This massive boost involved either the totally new or the renewed study of several long Quaternary lacustrine sediment records: Ioannina basin (Tzedakis, 1994; Lawson et al, 2004; Roucoux et al, 2011), Lake Ohrid (Wagner et al, 2009, 2017; Lézine et al, 2010; Sadori et al, 2016b), Lake Prespa (Panagiotopoulos et al, 2014) and Tenaghi Philippon (e.g., Tzedakis et al, 2006; Milner et al, 2012; Pross et al, 2015)
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