Reconstruction of Holocene lake-level changes in Lake Xinias,central Greece

Abstract

A study of past lake-level changes in Lake Xinias covering the last 40 000 years was presented in an earlier paper. In that paper, changes during the Holocene were only briefly dealt with, because of poor sedimentary representation. In this paper a supplementary transect of cores is described, in which Holocene lake-level changes are better recorded. The correlation of the cores was based on pollen and lithostratigraphic analyses, and a curve was constructed showing recorded lake-level changes. The curve from Lake Xinias was compared with an earlier compilation of lake-level changes from the Balkans, mainly from Greece. The compilation shows rising lake levels during the earlier part of the Holocene, and successively lowered levels during the later part. Most lake levels were high between about 8000 and 5500 cal. yr BP. The reconstruction from Lake Xinias indcates similar changes during the early and late Holocene. However, it differs by indicating a lowering in lake level, culminating around 7000 cal. yr BP, interrupting and dividing the period of mid-Holocene high lake-level stand. Further studies are required to show if this lowering in Lake Xinias was regionally representative and caused by climate change, or was caused by tectonic disturbance locally affecting lake level.

Keywords

Central Greece eastern Mediterranean Holocene lake-level changes pollen stratigraphy sediment stratigraphy.

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