Stappitzer See

Stappitzer See
View into the Seebach valley
Geographical location	Carinthia , Austria
Drain	Seeausrinn, Seebach → Mallnitzbach → Möll
Data
Coordinates	47 ° 1 '4 "  N , 13 ° 11' 39"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 1 '4 "  N , 13 ° 11' 39"  E
Altitude above sea level	1273  m above sea level A.
surface	3.6 ha
length	216 m
width	150 m
volume	130,000 m³
scope	680 m
Maximum depth	6 m
Middle deep	3.6 m

Silting oxbow in the Seebach valley

The Seebach just below the Stappitzer See

The Stappitzer See is a lake in the Carinthian Seebachtal in the outer zone of the Hohe Tauern National Park in the municipality of Mallnitz . The lake is at an altitude of 1273  m above sea level. A.

geography

Emergence

The Stappitzer See was created at the end of the last ice age . The receding glaciers and the associated decrease in ice pressure led to landslides from the flanks. Here in the Mallnitz valley, a huge landslide from the Auernig ( 2130  m ), the remains of which form a steep step near Rabisch below Mallnitz, formed the natural barrier behind which a lake up to 10 km long began to build up. The lake reached far into the Seebach valley and over the course of time was filled up again with debris from the Seebach and its feeder streams, with blocks and debris flows . This process is also the reason for the largely flat terrain in the local area of ​​Mallnitz.

The Stappitzer See is the remnant of this silting process. Alluvial cones of the side streams of the Seebach have built up another barrier just below. The lake has accumulated behind this.

In the area of ​​the lake, sediments up to 250 meters thick have built up.

history

Stappitzer See dam project

In the 1970s, the then Austrian Drau power plants planned a storage power plant in the Seebach valley. In the course of the preliminary geological investigations for the dam, four test drillings were carried out in the sediments of the lake floor in 1979/81 in the area of ​​Lake Stappitz. The power plant project subsequently failed due to the resistance of a citizens' initiative and the drill cores were made available for geological and pollen analysis studies.

Climate and vegetation archive

The original four wells reached a depth of up to 96 meters and were supplemented by a fifth well at a depth of 160 meters in autumn 1999. The ground moraine of the valley glacier of the Würm Ice Age was reached, but not the natural rock. The drill cores go back up to 17,000 years in the past. The pollen stratigraphy has allowed the climatic processes to be interpreted since then. They show the sequence of the warm phases and cold periods of the ending ice age. In the lowest, 17,000-year-old layers, 60 plant species, including the first flowering plants, can be detected. At that time, the Draugletscher had already disintegrated and there was a local valley glacier in the valley. Overall, the climatic conditions at that time, despite strong fluctuations (“Stappitz climatic fluctuations”), were favorable for the spread of shrub and tree-shaped trees.

In the extremely cold period of 15,000 to 12,000 years ago, the wood pollen disappeared in favor of grass and herb pollen, before birch , mountain pine and green alder spread again with the warm phase from 12,000 to 11,000 years ago . About 9,800 years ago the proportion of wood pollen rose sharply, spruce , elm , hazelnut and gray alder migrated into the Seebach valley, and dense gray alder populations dominated. At the height of the post-glacial warm period, between 6,700 and around 5,000 years ago, the annual mean temperatures reached 1 to 2 ° C, the summer mean temperatures 2 to 3 ° C more than today.

ecology

fauna

There are no breeding occurrences of Appendix I bird species at Stappitzer See. However, the lake serves as a resting place for migratory birds when they cross the Alps. B. the black-throated diver ( Gavia arctica ) or the yellow wagtail ( Motacilla flava ).

The breeding grounds of the Little Grebe ( Tachybaptus ruficollis ) at the lake are among the highest in Austria. The lake and the surrounding siltation zone are important foraging areas for the Seebach Valley's air fighters, such as the Alpine swift ( Apus melba ) and the rock swallow ( Ptyonoprogne rupestris ).

Protection status

In April 1986 the Stappitzer See and its surroundings were declared a natural monument and in March 2008 the European protected area “Stappitzer See und Umgebung”.

According to the Birds Directive Appendix I , the black-throated diver ( Gavia arctica ), the hazel grouse ( Bonasa bonasia ), the eagle owl ( Bubo bubo ), the pygmy owl ( Glaucidium passerinum ), the rough owl ( Aegolius funereus ), the black woodpecker ( Dryocopus martius ) are listed as worthy of protection. , the Grauspecht ( Picus canus ), the Dreizehenspecht ( Picoides tridactylus ), the Blaukehlchen ( Luscinia svecica ) and the Neuntöter ( lanius collurio ).

Species of the Habitats Directive in Annexes II and IV in the area that are Koppe ( Cottus gobio ) and the yellow-bellied toad ( Bombina variegata ).

Panorama Stappitzer See, left view into the Seebachtal, right out of the valley

literature

• Leopold Füreder: Waters, Hohe Tauern National Park . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck – Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-7022-2808-8 , p. 196-197 .
• Carinthian Institute for Lake Research (ed.): Stappitzer See and Mallnitzer Seebach . Limnological investigation 2001–2002. Klagenfurt November 2004 ( ktn.gv.at [accessed December 26, 2009]).
• Adolf Fritz and Friedrich H. Ucik: Vegetation history of the Seebach valley . Contribution to the climate and vegetation history of the Seebach valley near Mallnitz, Hohe Tauern, during the last 17,000 to 18,000 years. Ed .: Natural Science Association for Carinthia . Klagenfurt 2001, p. 393-402 ( PDF on ZOBODAT [accessed December 26, 2009]).
• Thomas Friedl, Wolfgang Honsig-Erlenburg and Jürgen Petutschnig: The fish population of the Stappitzer See . Investigation as part of the fish-ecological excursion of the Natural Science Association in 1994. In: Natural Science Association for Carinthia (Ed.): Carinthia II . tape 185./105 . Klagenfurt 1995, p. 169–182 ( PDF on ZOBODAT [accessed December 26, 2009]).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Umweltbundesamt (Ed.): Stappitzer See and surroundings . ( Umweltbundesamt.at [accessed on January 19, 2009]).
2. ↑ Land Kärnten (Ed.): Kärntner Landesgesetzblatt . Kärntner Druck- und Verlagsges. mb H., Klagenfurt April 14, 2008, 20th ordinance ( sbg.ac.at [PDF; accessed on January 19, 2009]).