The last climatic cycle at Kopais, central Greece

Thick lacustrine sequences from southern Europe provide an opportunity to derive continuous records where the chronostratigraphical position of pre-Holocene stages can be determined with increased confidence. Here, high-resolution sediment and pollen analytical results from a 60 m core recovered from the Kopais basin, central Greece, spanning the interval from the last interglacial to the early Holocene are presented. The record shows distinct shifts between open vegetation periods of increased erosion with sediment inwashing and forest periods associated with calcite precipitation in the lake. The sequence of major events of the last climatic cycle contained at Kopais bears strong similarities to other records in Greece, but also reveals the presence of high-frequency oscillations with higher amplitudes than previously seen at other sites.