Landscape Development and Climate Change in Southwest Bulgaria (Pirin Mountains)

Landscape Development and Climate Change in Southwest Bulgaria (Pirin Mountains)

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Karsten Grunewald Jörg Scheithauer Landscape Development and Climate Change in Southwest Bulgaria (Pirin Mountains)

Karsten Grunewald Leibniz Institute of Ecological and Regional Development Dresden Germany k.grunewald@ioer.de Jörg Scheithauer Landscape Research Centre Dresden Germany joerg@scheithauers.de ISBN 978-90-481-9958-7 e-isbn 978-90-481-9959-4 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9959-4 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Preface Tell me the past and I ll see the future. Confucius Southeast Europe, the Balkans and not least the southwest Bulgarian Pirin region experienced an eventful natural and cultural history covering a time scale from millenia to the decades of the Younger Past, which has to be decrypted. Information on the Pirin mountains, stored in geo-archives, has been examined using modern methods and with great effort. This monograph seeks to summarize information on landscape and climate development in the region. For the Holocene period, the last 10,000 years or so, the forest and climate history of the mountain regions was reconstructed using pollen analysis of lake sediments and peat. The extensive work of Bulgarian colleagues was analyzed and supplemented with soil surveys. Our examination focused on an archive network in the Alpine timberline zone of the northern Pirins. This network provides tree-ring analyses of centuries-old soil and moraine investigations, firn and ice layers of recent glaciers, and culturalhistory inquiries, as well as analyses of relatively long-time climate data series. Thus, the climate, including its extremes, can be described in relatively high resolution, for the last 500 years. The studies were conducted with the support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), as well as the administration of Pirin National Park. We wish to thank our co-workers and colleagues, namely Sieglinde Gerstenhauer, Alexander Gikov, Bjorn Günther, Dr. Gerhard Helle, Alexander Hennig, Dr. Jürgen König, Dr. Christiana Weber, Thomas Wieloch, Beate Winkler, and students too numerous to be named here, for their assistance with digging and drilling, mapping, sampling and lab analyses. A German version of the book was published first (www.rhombos.de). We thank Mr. Reiser for helping us with the authorisation chores. v

vi Preface Anne Scheithauer, Laura Grunewald and Silka Halmel: thank you for helping with the English text. Actual developments and findings were incorporated by us, especially regarding glaciers and dendrology. We would also like to express our gratitude to Margaret Deignan of the Environment Science Unit of Springer for her brilliant publishing support and R. Samuel, project manager at SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd, who handled the book production and language polishing. Dresden Karsten Grunewald Jörg Scheithauer

Contents 1 Geoarchives Why View the Past?... 1.1 Introduction and Objectives... 1.2 Reasons and Scales for Climate Changes... 1.3 Archives and Methods... 1 1 5 6 8 2 The Pirin Mountains as a Model Region... 2.1 Location and Ecosystem Characteristics... 2.2 Geology and Morphodynamic... 2.3 Water in the Pirin Mountains... 2.4 Soil and Biosphere... 2.5 Pirin National Park Potentials and Anthropogenic Interference... 11 11 13 19 21 Holocene Climate and Landscape Chronology... 3.1 Würm Glaciation and Late-Glacial Development... 3.2 Climate and Vegetation During the Holocene... 3.2.1 Early Holocene (Preboreal, Boreal)... 3.2.2 Mid Holocene (Atlantic)... 3.2.3 Late Holocene (Subboreal, Subatlantic)... 3.3 Outline of Cultural-Historical Dynamics... 3.3.1 Würm Glaciation... 3.3.2 Boreal and Atlantikum (10,200 4,800 BP)... 3.3.3 Bronze Age and Ice Age... 3.3.4 Roman Empire (2,300 1,600 BP)... 3.3.5 The Migration Period (Fourth Sixth Century)... 3.3.6 The Golden Bulgarian Period (Seventh Eleventh Century)... 3.3.7 Medieval Warmth Optimum (1000 1230) Also in Bulgaria?... 33 33 39 41 42 43 48 48 48 49 49 51 3 26 29 51 52 vii

viii Contents 3.3.8 Contemporary Climate Pessimum (1330; Particularly 1550 1850): The Little Ice Age... 3.3.9 Contemporary Thermal Optimum (Since 1850)... 4 5 6 Climate Data and Geo-Archives of the Recent Past... 4.1 Characterization of Contemporary Local Climate Change... 4.1.1 Introduction... 4.1.2 Analysis of Meteorological Observations... 4.1.3 Regional Climate Aspects... 4.1.4 Climate Change and Climate Trend... 4.2 Pirin s Glacier Features as a Climate Indicator... 4.2.1 Introduction... 4.2.2 The Recent Glaciation of High Mountains in Southeastern Europe... 4.2.3 Investigation Methods and Application to Snezhnika Glacieret... 4.2.4 The Response to Climate Change... 4.3 The Timberline Ecotones as Key... 4.3.1 Introduction... 4.3.2 Timberline Characteristics of the Northern Pirin Study Area... 4.4 Dendroecology of Pinus heldreichii... 4.4.1 Conifers as Geoarchives... 4.4.2 Methodological Approach... 4.4.3 Development of Chronologies... 4.4.4 Climate Growth Relation... Specifics of the Regional Climate and Landscape History... 5.1 Changes on the Millennial Timescale... 5.2 Climate Development of the Region During Younger Modern History... 5.3 The Recent Climate Change... 53 55 56 61 61 61 62 63 70 74 74 75 80 90 92 92 94 101 101 103 105 108 114 123 123 126 131 134 Conclusion and Outlook... 137 146 Abbreviations... 149 Index... 151