53. Deep water zone of the western Black Sea: the last 20 000 years of vegetation history

Abstract

The abyssal plain is the earliest formed morphological element of the Black Sea depression. The core studied is an uninterrupted sequence of Late Pleistocene and Holocene deep-water sediments. The modern western Black Sea coastal forest vegetation is various: temperate deciduous oak species such as Quercus cerris L. and Q. frainetto Ten. are dominant elements in lowland broadleaf deciduous forests; Fraxinus oxycarpa Willd., Ulmus minor Mill., and Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. are dominant in riverine flooded (riparian) forests; relic South-Euxinian forests of Fagus orientalis Lipsky, with the undergrowth of Rhododendron ponticum L. are spread in humid ravines of the Strandzha Mountains. More scarce are the steppe and the Mediterranean vegetation. The climate is ContinentalMediterranean. Mean annual precipitation is 480 mm. The mean annual temperature is 12 °C.