Abstract
Bulgarian highest mountains Rila (2,925 m a. s. l.) and Pirin (2,914 m a. s. l.) provide sets of relatively well-preserved glacial landforms from late Pleistocene and Holocene cold phases, several small recent perennial ice features and still well-preserved forest ecosystems at the tree limit that can serve as a source for valuable environmental records. Results of our latest studies show that in Rila valley glaciers reached their largest extent during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) stage (23,000–19,000 year BP), when the Equilibrium line altitude of the glaciers was at around 2,150–2,250 m a. s. l. and the longest glacier tongues went down to 1,150–1,200 m a. s. l. There were also found and described traces from several stages of glacier retreat. Another important aspect of environmental change consists of the observation of current environmental phenomena in order to evaluate local climate change during the last decades and at present. This chapter presents some results of research efforts in this field, which have been achieved up to now. One of the aims of this chapter is to propose incorporation of high-mountain environmental change researches from all the interested Balkan countries in a network for regional studies and modelling, and, if possible, to establish a workgroup dedicated to this topic.
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Gachev, E. (2011). Researches of Field Evidence for Late Quaternary Climate Changes in the Highest Mountains of Bulgaria. In: Zhelezov, G. (eds) Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0131-1_12
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