Project Details
Projekt
Terrestrial ecosystem response to climate variability during MIS 12-11 and MIS 19 in SE Europe based on high-resolution pollen analysis of Lake Ohrid ICDP core sediments.
Applicant
Dr. Andreas Koutsodendris
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2015 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270967537
To gain detailed insight into the terrestrial ecosystem and climate evolution under extreme glacial and interglacial intervals of the Quaternary. the project aims to generate new terrestrial pollen records for Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 12–11 and (as a new element within this follow-up proposal) 19c in SE Europe. The project goals are achieved via high-resolution palynological study of core material from Lake Ohrid (SW Balkan Peninsula) that has been recovered through ICDP drilling in 2013. During the first two project years, Work Packages (1) and (2) have yielded (i) a centennial-scale (~450 years) palynological record for MIS 11 with high counting sums for pollen (>500 grains), spores and algae, as well as pollen-based temperature and precipitation reconstructions; and (ii) the first centennial-scale (~400–800 years) palynological record for MIS 12 in Europe. The integration of the palynological data with sedimentological and geochemical information generated by collaboration partners within the Lake Ohrid science party, and comparison with regional proxy records has helped to refine the current understanding of terrestrial ecosystem and climate evolution during MIS 12–11 in SE Europe and beyond. To date (i.e., after 23 project months), our most important findings comprise evidence for (i) a strong cooling event at ~405 ka during full interglacial conditions, suggesting that the onset of millennial-scale climate variability in Southern Europe occurred ~7 kyrs before the end of the warmest sub-stage MIS 11c and earlier than in the marine realm; (ii) a transient expansion of thermophilous trees during MIS 12, suggesting a sensitive response of terrestrial ecosystems to Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O)-like warming events during full glacial conditions; (iii) the presence of rare tree taxa in the Lake Ohrid catchment both during MIS 12 and 11, supporting the notion that the area acted as a Pleistocene tree refugium. The third project year will be dedicated to Work Package (3), which will yield (i) an increased temporal resolution for the MIS 12 pollen record, allowing to better constrain the timing, tempo and nature of the detected D-O-like events; (ii) as an added value to the original proposal, a new centennial-scale pollen record for MIS 19c, an interglacial also considered a close orbital analogue for the Holocene alongside with MIS 11; and (iii) an overall synthesis of the project results. Specifically, the newly added component of MIS 19c will allow for the first time to constrain terrestrial ecosystem response to low eccentricity forcing in Europe based on high-resolution pollen records from three interglacials (MIS 1, 11c and 19c) from the same site (i.e., under identical geographical boundary conditions). In summary, the project will provide new insights into the nature of short-term climate and environmental change in the Eastern Mediterranean region during critical periods of the Quaternary.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
