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Reconstructing absolute water-level variability of Lake Prespa (SW Balkans) during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and ‘Little Ice Age’ from a prograding beach ridge complex
- Source :
- The Holocene. 27:1720-1730
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Lake Prespa beach ridges register climate-driven water-level fluctuations that contain a strong North Atlantic signal. This study examines the beach ridge complex that underlies the Koula isthmus (Lake Prespa, Greece) and contains a sedimentary archive of lake-level variations spanning >5 kyr. Past lake levels were reconstructed through the accurate height survey of selected beach sediment facies that form reliable stage indicators. Here, we present the first quantitative lake level recorded in the Balkans, covering ~1 kyr, based on sediment-stratigraphic analyses and supported by five radiocarbon and six optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age estimates. All major low/high lake phases over the past millennium were identified and dated in the sediment record. Low lake levels (842–847 m) from AD 900–1000 to AD 1430 dominated the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). Generally, high water levels (>847 m) are recorded after AD ~1430, corresponding to the regional start of the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA), up to AD 1987. This high lake phase was interspersed by a multi-decadal water-level fall to ~846.5 m ending AD ~1650. Low levels after AD 1987 (842–845 m) were mainly caused by water abstraction. Absolute water-level changes in Lake Prespa over the past millennium mirror the pattern of hydro-climatic changes in the west-central Mediterranean, indicating that the study region belonged to this hydro-climatic domain. The observed influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on winter precipitation and lake level (1951–2004) is also relevant over the past ~1 kyr, as the NAO index was overall positive during the MCA and negative during the ‘LIA’.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
Archeology
Global and Planetary Change
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Ecology
Anomaly (natural sciences)
Paleontology
01 natural sciences
Water level
Oceanography
Beach ridge
East mediterranean
Little ice age
Geology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Earth-Surface Processes
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14770911 and 09596836
- Volume :
- 27
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Holocene
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........6fd0f837e2c53804ad085c1687d744fb