International Geological Journal - Official Journal of the Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association

Impact factor

for year 2022 - 1.3
Impact Factor history

Contents

Late Miocene vegetation and climate of the Balkan region: palynology of the Beli Breg Coal Basin sediments

Published: Aug 2007

Pages: 367 - 381

Authors: DIMITER IVANOV, A. RAHMAN ASHRAF, TORSTEN UTESCHER, VOLKER MOSBRUGGER, EUGENIA SLAVOMIROVA

Abstract: The results of palynological studies of Neogene freshwater deposits of the Beli Breg Graben (West Bulgaria) are presented. We analysed pollen and spores with the aim of obtaining data about the composition and structure of fossil vegetation and climate conditions. The main vegetation paleocommunities, which existed during the fossilization process, are characterized as mixed mesophytic and swamp forests, communities of aquatic plants, and herbaceous paleocoenoses. The climate data reconstructed by the Coexistence Approach indicate a warm temperate climate with mean annual temperatures around 16 ºC and with mean temperature of at least 4 ºC during the coldest month. With annual precipitation rates commonly above 1000 mm climatic conditions were overall humid, although partly seasonally drier conditions are evident from the data.

Keywords: Pliocene, Late Miocene, Bulgaria, climate, vegetation, pollen analysis

Download PDF document