A 4500-YEAR OSTRACOD RECORD FROM LAKE SHKODRA (ALBANIA): PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL AND PALAEOCLIMATIC RECONSTRUCTION USING A MULTI PROXY APPROACH

During September 2003 several cores were drilled from the Albanian side of Lake Shkodra. Among them, a 7,8 m long composite core (SK13), drilled at a lake bottom depth of 7 m in the central southern part of the lake (42°6’11.65”N, 19°25’18.96”E) has been selected for multidisciplinary analysis. Ostracods, characeae, pollen, CaCO3 content and stable isotopes were studied with the aim to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic changes occurred during the Late Holocene. The chronological framework of SK13 was established through the recognition of four well-dated tephra layers and four 14C accelerator mass spectrometry measurements; the sedimentation rate has been calculated as spanning between 1.1 and 3.0 mm/yr in the different portions of the composite sediment core (SULPIZIO et al., 2010, VAN WELDEN et al., 2008)