The Late Weichselian to Holocene succession of the Niedersee (Rügen, Baltic Sea) – new results based on multi-proxy studies

Eine klassische weichselspätglaziale Lokalität ist die kleine Toteishohlform des Niedersees, welche direkt an der südöstlichen Küste der Halbinsel Jasmund (Rügen, Ostsee) aufgeschlossen ist. Neue Studien wurden durchgeführt, bei denen sich die sedimentäre Abfolge des Niedersees als ein hervorragendes Archiv für paläoökologische/-klimatische Rekonstruktionen erwies, wodurch detaillierte Aussagen zur regionalen Vegetationsgeschichte sowie zum regionalen Klima und Milieu während des Weichselspätglazials und auch teilweise für das Holozäns möglich sind. Mit Hilfe der Pollenstratigraphie, AMS 14C-Datierungen und dem Nachweis der Laacher See Tephra konnte die sedimentäre Abfolge in die bestehende Quartärstratigraphie eingehängt werden; als Besonderheit ist hier das quasi gesamte Weichselspätglazial vollständig aufgeschlossen. Die Sedimentation beginnt schon im ausgehenden Weichselhochglazial und dauert zunächst bis zum Präboreal an (~15.000–~10.000 Jahre v. H.) und ist vor allem durch Ablagerungen eines kleinen, flachen Sees charakterisiert. Änderungen im Wasserhaushalt führten letztendlich während des Präboreals zu einem Hiatus. Eine letztmalige Vernässung des Standorts führte im Atlantikum zur Entwicklung eines kalkigen Niedermoors. Die sich ergänzenden Analysen der verschiedenen und vielfältigen Organismenreste des Niedersees (z. B. Pollen, Ostracoden, Mollusken, Makroreste von Pflanzen etc.), erlaubten in sehr detaillierter Weise Änderungen im Klima und deren Auswirkungen auf das Habitat zu erfassen.researc

Onset and termination of the late-glacial climate reversal in the high-resolution diatom and sedimentary records from the annually laminated SG06 core from Lake Suigetsu, Japan

High-resolution diatom, sediment and pollen analyses of two sections from the annually laminated SG06 core from Lake Suigetsu were used to study the onset and termination of the late-glacial climate reversal in central Japan. Its broadly recognised counterpart is the Younger Dryas or Greenland Stadial-1 (ca. 12.85–11.65 cal. kyr BP based on the NGRIP ice core records). Our study suggests that accumulation of the analysed late-glacial sediments occurred in a deep and relatively cold water meso-eutrophic lake with a strong mixing regime and relatively high silica content. Combining these results together with available pollen-based environmental reconstructions we suggest that climate cooling, together with an intensified winter monsoon and thicker snow cover could influence changes in regional vegetation, sedimentation processes and trophic status of the lake during the transition from the last interstadial to stadial around Lake Suigetsu. A decrease in total pollen concentration and increase in Fagus pollen percentage indicate local vegetation stress/disturbances and suggest that cooling started at least 2–3 decades prior to the major shift in the inorganic sediment (accumulation of detrital layers) and in diatom assemblages (change from Aulacoseira ambigua to Aulacoseira subarctica dominance), which took about 10 years. The transition from the last stadial to the Holocene again shows that vegetation in the lake catchment area reacted first to the regional climate change, i.e. to the weakening of the winter monsoon and decrease in winter snow accumulation. The increase in the vegetation cover density and reduced volume of surface runoff associated with the decrease in melt water supply is likely responsible for the reduced soil erosion activity which caused the cessation in detrital layer accumulation and consequent decrease in the amount of nutrients brought to the lake and lowering of the water nutrient status. The latter process finally influenced changes in the diatom assemblages, including the return to dominance of A. subarctica ca. 30 years after the virtual disappearance of detrital layers from the sediment. Our results demonstrate the rapid response of the Lake Suigetsu system to the global cooling and subsequent warming, and allow clear definition of the onset and termination of the late-glacial climate reversal. Despite the fact that the lake system shows a more abrupt shift from the warm to cold (and cold to warm) environments than terrestrial records of vegetation demonstrate, we do not see any delayed response of local vegetation to the climate change. This last conclusion is of particular importance for application of the SG06 pollen record for quantitative climate reconstruction

An automated method for varve interpolation and its application to the Late Glacial chronology from Lake Suigetsu, Japan

The Lake Suigetsu sediment has been recognised for its potential to create a wholly terrestrial (i.e. non-reservoir-corrected) 14C calibration dataset, as it exhibits annual laminations (varves) for much of its depth and is rich in terrestrial leaf fossils, providing a record of atmospheric radiocarbon. Microscopic analysis revealed that the varve record is curtailed due to the incomplete formation or preservation of annual laminae, necessitating interpolation. The program for varve interpolation presented here analyses the seasonal layer distribution and automatically derives a sedimentation rate estimate, which is the basis for interpolation, and applies it to complement the original varve count. As the interpolation is automated it largely avoids subjectivity, which manual interpolation approaches often suffer from. Application to the Late Glacial chronology from Lake Suigetsu demonstrates the implementation and the limits of the method. To evaluate the reliability of the technique, the interpolation result is compared with the 14C chronology from Lake Suigetsu, calibrated with the tree-ring derived section of the IntCal09 calibration curve. The comparison shows that the accuracy of the interpolation result is well within the 68.2% probability range of the calibrated 14C dates and that it is therefore suitable for calibration beyond the present tree-ring limit

Paleontological records indicate the occurrence of open woodlands in a dry inland climate at the present-day Arctic coast in western Beringia during the Last Interglacial

Permafrost records, accessible at outcrops along the coast of Oyogos Yar at the Dmitry Laptev Strait, NE-Siberia, provide unique insights into the environmental history of Western Beringia during the Last Interglacial. The remains of terrestrial and freshwater organisms, including plants, coleopterans, chironomids, cladocerans, ostracods and molluscs, have been preserved in the frozen deposits of a shallow paleo-lake and indicate a boreal climate at the present-day arctic mainland coast during the Last Interglacial. Terrestrial beetle and plant remains suggest the former existence of open forest-tundra with larch (Larix dahurica), tree alder (Alnus incana), birch and alder shrubs (Duschekia fruticosa, Betula fruticosa, Betula divaricata, Betula nana), interspersed with patches of steppe and meadows. Consequently, the tree line was shifted to at least 270 km north of its current position. Aquatic organisms, such as chironomids, cladocerans, ostracods, molluscs and hydrophytes, indicate the formation of a shallow lake as the result of thermokarst processes. Steppe plants and beetles suggest low net precipitation. Littoral pioneer plants and chironomids indicate intense lake level fluctuations due to high evaporation. Many of the organisms are thermophilous, indicating a mean air temperature of the warmest month that was greater than 13 °C, which is above the minimum requirements for tree growth. These temperatures are in contrast to the modern values of less than 4 °C in the study area. The terrestrial and freshwater organism remains were found at a coastal exposure that was only 3.5 m above sea level and in a position where they should have been under sea during the Last Interglacial when the global sea level was 6–10 m higher than the current levels. The results suggest that during the last warm stage, the site was inland, and its modern coastal situation is the result of tectonic subsidence