Cyclic climate and vegetation change in the late Miocene of Western Bulgaria

A late Miocene paludal to lacustrine sequence from a carbonate basin in NW Bulgaria (Staniantsi Basin) is analysed displaying up to 27 rhythmically bedded sedimentary cycles. In the lower part of the sequence, the cycles consist of alternating autochthonous brown coal and marls containing diverse mollusc assemblages. The upper part of the sequence is characterized by alternating dark to light grey clays and calcareous silts. A palynomorph record comprising 163 samples is analysed by statistical means to reconstruct vegetation changes. The Coexistence Approach is used to calculate quantitative palaeoclimate records for 6 parameters. The studied section displays hierarchical cyclicity patterns. Longer-term cycles possibly related to eccentricity (period similar to 100 kyr) are present in the palynomorph record and show climate changes of warmer/wetter and cooler/drier periods in combination with frequency oscillations of thermophilous elements. Short-term cycles most probably related to precession (period similar to 21.7 kyr) are expressed by alternations of brown coal and marl/shell beds and show cyclic change in peat-forming vegetation related to oscillations of the groundwater level. As a triggering mechanism, wetter/warmer and drier/cooler climate phases related to orbital precession are probable. In addition, sections sampled at high resolution display small scale climate and vegetational variability. As is shown by the analysis ferns were an important component of the peat-forming vegetation, while outside the mire, a wetland vegetation consisting of pioneers and a mixed mesophytic forest with evergreen shrubs existed. An oligo- to mesotrophic slightly alkaline lake became repeatedly established with a diverse mollusc fauna and a dense hydrophytic vegetation with characean meadows. In the upper part of the section, a spreading of herbaceous vegetation is observed, also known from other contemporaneaous palynomorph records in Bulgaria and surrounding areas. The increase of Asteraceae in the upper part of the section, combined with a marked decrease in woody taxa, points to an opening of habitats and a decrease in mean annual precipitation. This trend is paralleled by the mollusc fauna which yields several terrestrial, partly xerophilous taxa. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.