Authors: Christian Körner Dimitrios Sarris Dimitrios Christodoulakis
Publish Date: 2005/04/02
Volume: 5, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-36
Abstract
The Eastern Mediterranean region is among the regions which were predicted to become drier under IPCC climate scenarios Here we document a gradual reduction of rainfall and tree growth and the loss of rural springs during the last decades of the twentieth century Years with severe drought are associated with very low tree growth dendrochronology and dry falling of springs as evidenced by interviews with local stakeholders The paper discusses the consequences of accelerating drought on natural vegetation and agriculture and points at the interaction with fire dynamics and economy both likely to enhance the drought effectThe dendroecological data shown here are part of an MSc thesis by Dimitrios Sarris Fabian Meyer Basel helped with advice on the dendrological analysis The stable isotope data were kindly provided by Rolf Siegwolf PSI Villingen Switzerland Part of the interviews Ambelos region became available thanks to Konstantinos Riglis of Marathokampos The artwork was done by S PeláezRiedl Pascal Niklaus helped with statistics Financial support by AVEC integrated Assessment of Vulnerable Ecosystems under global Change European Commission EVK2CT200120010 led by W Cramer Potsdam is gratefully acknowledged This work was presented at the European drought risk conference in Pythagorion Samos Greece in April 2003 Antony Smith Staffs UK was so kind to check our English during an early drafting stage The text profited a lot from two anonymous referees’ input During publication DS was supported by the Research Committee of the University of Patras
Keywords: