Reconstruct in detail the climatic variations and the entire geological history of Lake Ohrid, the oldest lake in Europe located between Albania and North Macedonia. The results of the study, in which INGV also participated, provide important information on the climatic history of the Mediterranean
Durante i periodi caldi del Quaternario (interglaciali) le precipitazioni invernali sono aumentate nella regione del nord mediterraneo, molto probabilmente a causa delle alte temperature della superficie marina ed effetti analoghi potrebbero verificarsi nel prossimo futuro a seguito del riscaldamento climatico indotto dalle attività umane. È quanto afferma la ricerca internazionale Mediterranean winter rainfall in phase with African monsoons during the past 1.36 million years condotta nell'ambito dell'International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) che vede tra i partner italiani l’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), le Università di Pisa, Firenze, Bari, Reggio Emilia, Roma Sapienza e il Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). Lo studio è stato pubblicato sulla rivista Nature.
“The project was carried out with the aim of obtaining new data to constrain the age and origin of Lake Ohrid (Ohrid), the climatic history of the Mediterranean region and the underlying causes of the high degree of endemism and biodiversity of the area”, explains Leonardo Sagnotti, Director of the INGV Environment Department and co-author of the research. "In this regard, lake drilling campaigns were carried out in a water depth of 245 metres, which allowed the recovery of 568 m of sediment at the bottom of the lake".
Lake Ohrid is famous for its exceptional biodiversity, with over 300 endemic plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world.
“By integrating different scientific techniques we have come to have a tightly constrained understanding of the climate and environmental changes recorded in sediments. It emerged that the lake began to form 1.36 million years ago and has existed continuously since then”, continues Leonardo Sagnotti.
The succession of sediments has therefore made it possible to reconstruct in detail the climatic variations and the entire geological history of the lake basin.
“Climate simulation models indicate that during the interglacial intervals cyclogenesis, the formation of low atmospheric pressure zones, on the western Mediterranean intensified, especially in the autumn months. This condition is most likely due to the high temperatures of the sea surface, which leads to considerably higher rainfall in the regions bordering the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Similar effects could occur in the near future as a result of global warming induced by human activities".
The research team was led by Prof. Bernd Wagner of the University of Cologne and coordinated for Italy by Prof. Giovanni Zanchetta of the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Pisa.
“Considering that the climate projections for the coming decades by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate various plausible scenarios for the future climate in the Mediterranean region, the new scientific results obtained with the Lake Ohrid drilling project constitute an important support to better constrain the forecasting models of future climate evolution for the Mediterranean” concludes the researcher.
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Image - The location of the lake and of the drilling
Photo - The drilling rig