Table Of ContentLandscape 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 Jörg Scheithauer
Leibniz Institute of Ecological and Regional Landscape Research Centre
Development Dresden
Dresden Germany
Germany [email protected]
[email protected]
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
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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 cultural-
history inquiries, as well as analyses of relatively long-time climate data series.
Thus, the climate, including its extremes, can be described in relatively high resolu-
tion, 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
1.1 Introduction and Objectives ............................................................... 1
1.2 Reasons and Scales for Climate Changes .......................................... 5
1.3 Archives and Methods ....................................................................... 6
References ................................................................................................... 8
2 The Pirin Mountains as a Model Region ............................................... 11
2.1 Location and Ecosystem Characteristics ........................................... 11
2.2 Geology and Morphodynamic ........................................................... 13
2.3 Water in the Pirin Mountains ............................................................. 19
2.4 Soil and Biosphere ............................................................................. 21
2.5 Pirin National Park – Potentials and Anthropogenic
Interference ........................................................................................ 26
References ................................................................................................... 29
3 Holocene Climate and Landscape Chronology ...................................... 33
3.1 Würm Glaciation and Late-Glacial Development ............................. 33
3.2 Climate and Vegetation During the Holocene.................................... 39
3.2.1 Early Holocene (Preboreal, Boreal) ....................................... 41
3.2.2 Mid Holocene (Atlantic) ........................................................ 42
3.2.3 Late Holocene (Subboreal, Subatlantic) ................................ 43
3.3 Outline of Cultural-Historical Dynamics ........................................... 48
3.3.1 Würm Glaciation .................................................................... 48
3.3.2 Boreal and Atlantikum (10,200–4,800 BP) ........................... 48
3.3.3 Bronze Age and Ice Age ........................................................ 49
3.3.4 Roman Empire (2,300–1,600 BP) .......................................... 49
3.3.5 The Migration Period (Fourth–Sixth Century) ...................... 51
3.3.6 The Golden Bulgarian Period
(Seventh–Eleventh Century) .................................................. 51
3.3.7 Medieval Warmth Optimum
(1000–1230) – Also in Bulgaria? ........................................... 52
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viii Contents
3.3.8 Contemporary Climate Pessimum (1330;
Particularly 1550–1850): The “Little Ice Age”. ..................... 53
3.3.9 Contemporary Thermal Optimum (Since 1850) .................... 55
References ................................................................................................... 56
4 Climate Data and Geo-Archives of the Recent Past .............................. 61
4.1 Characterization of Contemporary Local Climate Change ................ 61
4.1.1 Introduction ............................................................................ 61
4.1.2 Analysis of Meteorological Observations .............................. 62
4.1.3 Regional Climate Aspects ...................................................... 63
4.1.4 Climate Change and Climate Trend ....................................... 70
4.2 Pirin’s Glacier Features as a Climate Indicator .................................. 74
4.2.1 Introduction ............................................................................ 74
4.2.2 The Recent Glaciation of High Mountains
in Southeastern Europe .......................................................... 75
4.2.3 Investigation Methods and Application
to Snezhnika Glacieret ........................................................... 80
4.2.4 The Response to Climate Change .......................................... 90
4.3 The Timberline Ecotones as Key ....................................................... 92
4.3.1 Introduction ............................................................................ 92
4.3.2 Timberline Characteristics of the Northern
Pirin Study Area ..................................................................... 94
4.4 Dendroecology of Pinus heldreichii .................................................. 101
4.4.1 Conifers as Geoarchives ......................................................... 101
4.4.2 Methodological Approach ..................................................... 103
4.4.3 Development of Chronologies ............................................... 105
4.4.4 Climate Growth Relation ....................................................... 108
References ................................................................................................... 114
5 Specifics of the Regional Climate and Landscape History .................... 123
5.1 Changes on the Millennial Timescale ................................................ 123
5.2 Climate Development of the Region During Younger
Modern History .................................................................................. 126
5.3 The Recent Climate Change .............................................................. 131
References ................................................................................................... 134
6 Conclusion and Outlook .......................................................................... 137
References ................................................................................................... 146
Abbreviations .................................................................................................. 149
Index ................................................................................................................. 151
Chapter 1
Geoarchives – Why View the Past?
Abstract Comprehensive knowledge of climate and landscape dynamics is
essential to obtain a basic understanding of the recent geoecological situation
and to assess possible future developments. High mountains and their ecosystems
offer an outstanding opportunity for studies on the impact of climate change. The
Pirin Mountains in Southeast Europe, situated at the transition between temper-
ate and Mediterranean climate, are considered very sensitive to historical and
current global changes. To evaluate the current situation, the existing climate
proxy data sets need to be amended by precisely dated and highly time-resolved
geoarchives spanning past centuries. Thus, the examination aims to reconstruct
climate variability on different time scales, allowing us to improve the regional
and sub-regional knowledge of facts and ecosystem services due to trends of
global climate change.
Keywords Climate and landscape development • Geoarchives • Methods
• Southwest Bulgaria
1.1 Introduction and Objectives
The anthropogenic change of the natural and cultural landscape increasingly affects
ecosystems throughout the world on a regional and global scale. Resulting ecologi-
cal and economic developments need to be recorded and, if possible, sustainably
assessed. Therefore a comprehensive understanding of the structure, function and
dynamic nature of these ecosystems is essential.
Our working group carried out such investigations in southeastern Europe for
several years (Grunewald and Stoilov 1998; Grunewald et al. 1999, 2007;
Grunewald and Scheithauer 2008a). The center of interest is the northern Pirin and
its flanking basins and valleys. Due to the biodiversity, this area can be regarded as
an important refuge (Griffiths et al. 2004). The highest areas are most affected by
the pressure of land use and also by climatic alteration. The ecosystem structures,
K. Grunewald and J. Scheithauer, Landscape Development and Climate Change 1
in Southwest Bulgaria (Pirin Mountains), DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9959-4_1,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
