Southeast Central Europe Research Articles

Evaluation of multiple surface-, satellite-, reanalysis-, and WRF model-based gridded precipitation datasets over south-east Central Europe

This study intercompares precipitation from gridded surface- (E-OBS, CARPATCLIM) and satellite-based (CMORPH, GPM IMERG, TRMM TMPA, PERSIANN-CDR, CHIRPS) observational datasets, the ERA5 reanalysis, and WRF regional climate simulations with grid spacings of 50 km and 10 km. The evaluation is carried out for the Carpathian region (south-east Central Europe), covering the 2001–2010 and 1985–2010 periods. Area-averaged mean precipitation is compared on the annual, monthly, daily, and hourly scales over a low-altitude, flat subregion within the Carpathian Basin. On the daily scale, ERA5 agrees the most with the ground-based datasets (E-OBS and CARPATCLIM), followed by the satellite-based products (in order: GPM IMERG, TRMM, CMORPH, CHIRPS, and PERSIANN-CDR), and the WRF simulations. E-OBS displays consistently lower precipitation than the reference CARPATCLIM and most other datasets. Precipitation is considerably underestimated by CMORPH in winter and overestimated by PERISANN-CDR throughout the year, questioning their direct applicability in the study region. Conversely, TRMM and CHIRPS are reasonable complements to the ground-based CARPATCLIM in climate monitoring and model verification over the target area. However, the performance of the different observation-based data products is heavily region-dependent. WRF over- and underestimates spring and summer precipitation, respectively, compared to all observation-based datasets. The grid spacing reduction from 50 km to 10 km improves simulated monthly mean precipitation during the period dominated by large-scale weather processes (October to April) and the course of the diurnal precipitation cycle over the Pannonian Plain. Relying on individual observational products in model verification can potentially lead to false bias characterization. The diurnal precipitation maximum occurs 2 and 4–5 h earlier in ERA5 and WRF, respectively, compared to GPM IMERG. However, discrepancies between the CMORPH and GPM IMERG diurnal cycles prevent a rigorous evaluation of sub-daily precipitation from the model-based datasets.

The origin of Neolithic copper on the central Northern European plain and in Southern Scandinavia: Connectivities on a European scale.

The production, distribution and use of copper objects and the development of metallurgical skills in Neolithic Northern Central Europe and Southern Scandinavia are linked to early centres of copper metallurgy of South East Central Europe and Southeast Europe. A total of 45 Neolithic copper objects, until now the largest sample of Early Neolithic objects from the Northern Central European Plain and Southern Scandinavia, were selected for new lead isotope analyses. They aided in the identification of the origin of the copper: These new analyses indicate that the copper ore deposits in Southeastern Europe, especially from the Serbian mining areas, were used for the Early Neolithic northern artefacts (ca. 4100-3300 BC). The most likely sources of copper for the few Middle Neolithic artefacts (ca. 3300-2800 BC) seem to be from the Slovak Ore Mountains, the Serbian mining areas and the Eastern Alps, whereas deposits of the Slovak Ore Mountains and the Alpine region were used for the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2300-1700 BC) artefacts. For the artefacts dated after 2000 BC, the Great Orme mine in Wales also appears to have been the source of copper for the analysed metals. The use of copper from different regions of Europe probably reflects changing social and cultural connectivities on a European scale and the changing chronology of copper exploitation.

Towards New Horizons: Climate Trends in Europe Increase the Environmental Suitability for Permanent Populations of Hyalomma marginatum (Ixodidae).

Ticks and tick-borne pathogens are changing their current distribution, presumably due to the impact of the climate trends. On a large scale, these trends are changing the environmental suitability of Hyalomma marginatum, the main vector of several pathogens affecting human health. We generated annual models of environmental suitability for the tick in the period 1970–2018, using harmonic regression-derived data of the daily maximum and minimum temperature, soil moisture and water vapor deficit. The results demonstrate an expansion of the suitable area in Mediterranean countries, southeast central Europe and south of the Balkans. Also, the models allowed us to interpret the impact of the ecological variables on these changes. We deduced that (i) maximum temperature was significant for all of the biogeographical categories, (ii) soil humidity has an influence in the Mediterranean climate areas, and (iii) the minimum temperature and deficit water vapor did not influence the environmental suitability of the species. The conclusions clearly show that climate change could create new areas in Europe with suitable climates for H. marginatum, while keeping its “historical” distribution in the Mediterranean. Therefore, it is necessary to further explore possible risk areas for H. marginatum and its associated pathogens.

The Westpalaearctic Lasius paralienus complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) contains three species

Application of Numeric Morphology-Based Alpha-Taxonomy (NUMOBAT) demonstrated the existence of three cryptic species within the Westpalaearctic Lasius paralienus species complex: L. paralienus Seifert, 1992, having a wider European distribution north to Sweden, L. casevitzi sp. nov., an endemic of Corsica, and Lasius bombycina sp. nov. from southeast Central Europe, the Balkans and Asia Minor. Hierarchical NC-Ward clustering and non-hierarchical NC-k-means clustering of 16 morphological characters resulted in 98.7% identical classifications within 76 examined nest samples of the three species. The classification error in 180 worker individuals was 0% in a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and 1.3% in a LOOCV-LDA. Differential characters to other species groups and an identification key of the six European members of the Lasius alienus Förster species group are provided.

Molecular biogeography of red deer Cervus elaphus from eastern Europe: insights from mitochondrial DNA sequences

European red deer are known to show a conspicuous phylogeographic pattern with three distinct mtDNA lineages (western, eastern and North-African/Sardinian). The western lineage, believed to be indicative of a southwestern glacial refuge in Iberia and southern France, nowadays covers large areas of the continent including the British Isles, Scandinavia and parts of central Europe, while the eastern lineage is primarily found in southeast-central Europe, the Carpathians and the Balkans. However, large parts of central Europe and the whole northeast of the continent were not covered by previous analyses. To close this gap, we produced mtDNA control region sequences from more than 500 red deer from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and western Russia and combined our data with sequences available from earlier studies to an overall sample size of almost 1,100. Our results show that the western lineage extends far into the European east and is prominent in all eastern countries except for the Polish Carpathians, Ukraine and Russia where only eastern haplotypes occurred. While the latter may actually reflect the natural northward expansion of the eastern lineage after the last ice age, the present distribution of the western lineage in eastern Europe may in large parts be artificial and a result of translocations and reintroduction of red deer into areas where the species became extinct in historical times.

European floods during the winter 1783/1784: scenarios of an extreme event during the ‘Little Ice Age’

The Lakagigar eruption in Iceland during 1783 was followed by the severe winter of 1783/1784, which was characterised by low temperatures, frozen soils, ice-bound watercourses and high rates of snow accumulation across much of Europe. Sudden warming coupled with rainfall led to rapid snowmelt, resulting in a series of flooding phases across much of Europe. The first phase of flooding occurred in late December 1783–early January 1784 in England, France, the Low Countries and historical Hungary. The second phase at the turn of February–March 1784 was of greater extent, generated by the melting of an unusually large accumulation of snow and river ice, affecting catchments across France and Central Europe (where it is still considered as one of the most disastrous known floods), throughout the Danube catchment and in southeast Central Europe. The third and final phase of flooding occurred mainly in historical Hungary during late March and early April 1784. The different impacts and consequences of the above floods on both local and regional scales were reflected in the economic and societal responses, material damage and human losses. The winter of 1783/1784 can be considered as typical, if severe, for the Little Ice Age period across much of Europe.

Historical Implications of a Romanian Lexical Family of Old Germanic Origin (ban, banat, bani, banui, bântui)

1 and for the post-ancient history of Southeast-Central Europe, as the ban family of words, to be found in Romanian and in several neighbouring languages. 2 It may now appear as quite surprising that no one has proposed Old Germanic origins for those ban cognates. Such a situation was, in my opinion, caused by the fact that some earlier explanations regarding the ban family were considered to be definitive solutions, so they became a kind of etymological transmitted from author to author until the present day. Those legends encouraged a perpetuation of confusing references and missing links, which could have been solved by new approaches to otherwise well-recorded lexical materials.

Ecumenicity or Orthodoxy: The Dilemma of The Protestants in the Lands of the Austrian Habsburgs

The call for the reform of the life and teachings of the church which emanated from Wittenberg early in the sixteenth century elicited an almost immediate response in southeast central Europe. In the lands which came under the rule of Ferdinand I after the disastrous battle at Mohács, reformation doctrines and practices spread quickly. By the middle of the sixteenth century the majority of the population in the lands ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs adhered to one of the several evangelical reform movements. Hussite, Lutheran, Helvetic, Anabaptist and Anti-Trinitarian theologies all found supporters in the region.

The Influence of the Augsburg Confession in South-East Central Europe

The Influence of the Augsburg Confession in South-East Central Europe