Linear and non-linear responses of vegetation and soils to glacial-interglacial climate change in a Mediterranean refuge
Holtvoeth, J.; Vogel, H.; Valsecchi, V.; Lindhorst, K.; Schouten, S.; Wagner, B.; Wolff, G.A. (2017). Linear and non-linear responses of vegetation and soils to glacial-interglacial climate change in a Mediterranean refuge. NPG Scientific Reports 7(1): 7. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08101-y
The impact of past global climate change on local terrestrial ecosystems and their vegetation and soilorganic matter (OM) pools is often non-linear and poorly constrained. To address this, we investigatedthe response of a temperate habitat influenced by global climate change in a key glacial refuge, LakeOhrid (Albania, Macedonia). We applied independent geochemical and palynological proxies to asedimentary archive from the lake over the penultimate glacial-interglacial transition (MIS 6–5) andthe following interglacial (MIS 5e-c), targeting lake surface temperature as an indicator of regionalclimatic development and the supply of pollen and biomarkers from the vegetation and soil OM poolsto determine local habitat response. Climate fluctuations strongly influenced the ecosystem, however,lake level controls the extent of terrace surfaces between the shoreline and mountain slopes and hencelocal vegetation, soil development and OM export to the lake sediments. There were two phases oftransgressional soil erosion from terrace surfaces during lake-level rise in the MIS 6–5 transition thatled to habitat loss for the locally dominant pine vegetation as the terraces drowned. Our observationsconfirm that catchment morphology plays a key role in providing refuges with low groundwater depthand stable soils during variable climate.
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