Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid (SCOPSCO): Coring and Sedimentology
Final Report Abstract
The project "Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid (SCOPSCO) - Coring and Sedimentology" was the central part of a DFG bundle proposal of several German research institutions and is integrated in a collaborative research program, mainly with partners from European research institutions. Within the scope of the ICDP project it was aimed to recover five up to 680 m long sediment sequences from Lake Ohrid (Albania and Macedonia). The ICDP project aims to study the age and origin of Lake Ohrid, to achieve detailed information about geological, environmental and climate variations during the Quaternary and to improve the knowledge of the driving forces for biotic speciation. The project here reported was intended (1) to ensure a successful coring campaign of Lake Ohrid in spring 2011 within the scope of the ICDP drilling campaign, (2) to carry out initial studies on the recovered sediment sequences in order to establish lithological profiles, define periods of major environmental changes and provide, in cooperation, robust age-depth models on the cores and (3) to provide a reliable scientific and logistic basis for future collaboration with other research institutions involved in the project. Coring was originally planned for summer 2011 using Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earth’s Continental Crust’s (DOSECC) Deep Lake Drilling System (DLDS). Although this was postponed due to financial reasons, a coring campaign using UWITEC (Austria) equipment was carried out in June 2011, and a 10 m long sediment succession was recovered from the Lini site and also surface sediment cores were recovered from the DEEP site. A fire on the container vessel MSC "Flaminia", which transported the DLDS from the U.S. to Europe in summer 2012, caused a second delay for the start of the drilling operations. Finally, drilling started in late March 2013, and by late May 2013 a total of ~2100 m of sediment had been recovered from Lake Ohrid at four different sites. At the DEEP site in the central part of Lake Ohrid, six parallel holes were drilled with a maximum sediment depth of 569 m b.l.f. and a total recovery of 1526 m of sediment cores. The SCOPSCO drilling operation is heralded as one of the most successful ICDP lake drilling campaigns ever. To date, 54 tephra and cryptotephra horizons have been found in the upper 460 m of this DEEP site sediment succession. Tephrochronology and tuning biogeochemical proxy data to orbital parameters revealed that the upper 247.8 m represent the last 637 kyr and that the lake established around 1.4 Myr ago. The multi-proxy data set covering these 1.4 Myr indicates longterm variability. Some proxies show a change from generally cooler and wetter to drier and warmer glacial and interglacial periods around 300 ka. Short-term environmental change caused, for example, by tephra deposition or the climatic impact of millennial-scale Dansgaard- Oeschger and Heinrich events are superimposed on the long-term trends. Most results of the studies of the upper 247.8 m of the DEEP site sediment succession are published in a special issue of "Biogeosciences". Most lithological and sedimentological analyses of the lower part (>247.8 m) and the establishment of an age model for the entire record are accomplished to date, but were not published in the period covered by the report. The existing results show that Lake Ohrid experienced significant environmental change over the last 637 kyr. However, the mountainous setting with relatively high water availability provided a refuge for temperate and montane trees during the relatively cold and dry glacial periods. Lake internal taxa do not indicate significant changes in diversification rate during this period. The reasons for this constant rate remain largely unknown, but a possible lack of environmentally induced extinction events in Lake Ohrid and/or the high resilience of the ecosystems may have played a role. The public outcome of the project is documented in national and international media, magazines and TV documentations, e.g. in the "Kölner Stadtanzweiger" (21.01.14), "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" (06.07.14), the "Wissenschaftsmagazin nano (27.01.14), or "Republika" (MK); 10.05.2013).
Publications
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(2012): Possible earthquake trigger for 6th century mass wasting deposit at Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania). Climate of the Past 8, 2069- 2078
Wagner B, Francke A, Sulpizio R, Zanchetta G, Lindhorst K, Krastel S, Vogel H, Rethemeyer J, Daut G, Grazhdani A, Lushaj B, Trajanovski S
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(2015): A high resolution Late Glacial to Holocene record of environmental change in the Mediterranean from Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania). International Journal of Earth Sciences 104,1623-1638
Lacey J, Francke A, Leng MJ, Vane CH, Wagner B
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(2015): Sedimentary and tectonic evolution of Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania). Basin Research 27, 84-101
Lindhorst K, Krastel S, Reicherter K, Stipp M, Wagner B, Schwenk T
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(2016): First tephrostratigraphic results of the DEEP site record from Lake Ohrid (Macedonia and Albania). Biogeosciences 13, 2151-2178
Leicher N, Zanchetta G, Sulpizio R, Giaccio B, Wagner B, Nomade S, Francke A, Del Carlo P
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(2016): Northern Mediterranean climate since the Middle Pleistocene: a 637 ka stable isotope record from Lake Ohrid (Albania/Macedonia). Biogeosciences13, 1801-1820
Lacey JH, Leng MJ, Francke A, Sloane HJ, Milodowski A, Vogel H, Baumgarten H, Zanchetta G, Wagner B
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(2016): Pollen-based paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic change at Lake Ohrid (SE Europe) during the past 500 ka. Biogeosciences 13, 1423-1437
Sadori L, Koutsodendris A, Panagiotopoulos K, Masi A, Bertini A, Combourieu-Nebout N, Francke A, Kouli K, Joannin S, Mercuri AM, Peyron O, Torri P, Wagner B, Zanchetta G, Sinopoli G, Donders TH
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(2016): Scientific drilling projects in ancient lakes: Integrating geological and biological histories. Global and Planetary Change 143, 118-151
Wilke T, Wagner B, Van Bocxlaer B, Albrecht C, Ariztegui D, Delicado D, Francke A, Harzhauser M, Hauffe T, Holtvoeth J, Just J, Leng MJ, Levkov Z, Penkman K, Sadori L, Skinner A, Stelbrink B, Vogel H, Wesselingh F, Wonik T
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(2016): Sedimentological processes and environmental variability at Lake Ohrid (Macedonia, Albania) between 640 ka and modern days. Biogeosciences 13, 1179-1196
Francke A, Wagner B, Just J, Leicher N, Gromig R, Baumgarten H, Vogel H, Lacey JH, Sadori L, Wonik T, Leng MJ, Zanchetta G, Sulpizio R, Giaccio B
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(2017): Linear and non-linear responses of vegetation and soils to glacial-interglacial climate change in a Mediterranean refuge. Nature Scientific Reports 7, 8121
Holtvoeth J, Vogel H, Valsecci V, Lindhorst K, Schouten S, Wagner B, Wolff GA
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(2017): The environmental and evolutionary history of Lake Ohrid (FYROM/Albania): Interim results from the SCOPSCO deep drilling project. Biogeosciences 14, 2033-2054
Wagner B, Wilke T, Francke A, Albrecht C, Baumgarten H, Bertini A, Combourieu-Nebout N, Cvetkoska A, D´Addabbo M, Donders TH, Föller K, Giaccio B, Grazhdani A, Hauffe T, Holtvoeth J, Joannin S, Jovanovska E, Just J, Kouli K, Koutsodendris A, Krastel S, Lacey JH, Leicher N, Leng MJ, Levkov Z, Lindhorst K, Masi A, Mercuri AM, Nomade S, Nowaczyk N, Panagiotopoulos K, Peyron O, Reed JM, Regattieri E, Sadori L, Sagnotti L, Stelbrink B, Sulpizio R, Tofilovska S, Torri P, Vogel H, Wagner T, Wagner-Cremer F, Wolff GA, Wonik T, Zanchetta G, Zhang XS
