Climate changes at Lake Shkodra (Albania): the last 4500 years

Lake Shkodra is a wide basin located at the Albania/Montenegro border. Few kms of steep mountain slopes separate the lake from the Adriatic Sea, Three parallel overlapping cores down to the depth of 7.26 m have been used for palaeomagnetic, tephra, isotope, diatom, pollen, and microcharcoal analyses. The chronological framing of the record, spanning approximately the last 4500 years, has been assessed using 3 210Pb, 4 14C AMS dates al and 4 well-known tephra layers. The presence of such characteristic Italian volcanic ashes provides a relatively good chronology for the second half of the Holocene. The 818Oc record indicates the presence of two prominent wet phases: one centered at ca. 4300 cal yr BP, and one at ca. 2400-2000 yr cal BP. The physiognomy of the vegetation did not suffer very much from the hydrological changes suggested by oxygen isotopes, recording small percentage changes of AP from 4500 to ca 900 cal yr BP. However, since ca. 900 cal yr BP human impact became apparent with significant decrease in AP% and in total pollen concentration. Despite being quite homogeneous, the well preserved ostracod assemblage records both the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.