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Pollen analysis was performed on a 343 cm long core recovered from Lake Ribno Banderishko (2190 m) on Northern Pirin Mountain (southwestern Bulgaria), supplemented by six [sup 14]C AMS dates. The lower part of the sequence (343-290 cm) was deposited during the Lateglacial when mountain-steppe vegetation with Artemisia, Poaceae, Chenopodiaceae and other herbs, and with stands of Pinus and Juniperus, dominated at high altitudes. The identification of pollen of mesophilous trees suggests that local populations may have survived in refuges below 1000 m where environmental conditions were favourable for their growth. The reforestation dynamics in early-Holocene times (11200-8400 cal. BP) started with Betula forests at high altitudes and deciduous forests with Quercus, Ulmus, Tilia and Fraxinus excelsior at lower altitudes. The time of the maximal spread of Corylus at c. 8000 cal. BP coincided with the establishment of Abies alba in the forests, and the beginning of the formation of a coniferous belt, dominated by pines (Pinus sylvestris, P. peuce, P. nigra and P. heldreichii). The late immigrants Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies invaded the mountain slopes at c. 4400 cal. BP and 3300 cal. BP, respectively. Palynological traces of anthropogenic activity and landscape management began after c. 2200 cal. BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pollen analysis and AMS radiocarbon dating were conducted on the lateglacial sediments (175cm in thickness) of a core obtained from the glacial Lake Ribno (2184m) in the northwestern Rila Mountains. The vegetation dynamics at high-mid altitudes based on important changes in palynostratigraphy as a response to the lateglacial climate fluctuations for the time interval 16000–11600cal.yrsBP is bound to an interstadial/stadial cycle, analogous with the Bölling/Alleröd–Younger Dryas. The established local chronology demonstrates also good correlation with the isotopic signal from Greenland ice-cores. The reconstruction of the lateglacial vegetation shows common features with other sites from the Bulgarian mountains (Rila, Pirin, Western Rhodopes) and the glacial lakes in the southern Romanian Carpathians (Retezat Mountains). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]