Palynological analyses in the laminated sediment of Lake Holzmaar (Eifel, Germany): duration of Lateglacial and Preboreal biozones

The laminated sediment of Lake Holzmaar (Germany) has provided a continuous varve chronology for the last 3500 varve years (vy) and beyond that a floating varve chronology back to more than 22500 vy BP. This chronology in calendar years, in combination with palynology, enables us to determine the timing and the magnitude of Lateglacial and Early Holocene environmental changes on land (from 13838 to 10930 vy BP). The palynological diagram has a mean time resolution of 27 vy between samples. This paper establishes for the first time the biozonation for Lake Holzmaar below the Laacher See Tephra. Fifteen pollen subzones grouped in four biozones are defined by cluster analysis. After a period disturbed by microturbidites, only a part of the Bølling is present. Three cold periods have been evidenced by pollen analyses: the Older Dryas (96-vy-long), the Younger Dryas (654-vy-long) and the Rammelbeek phase (237-vy-long). The Allerød (883-vy-long) is bipartite with a first Betula -dominated period followed by a Pinus -dominated one. The Younger Dryas is also bipartite, with first a decrease of winter temperatures along with a change to a more continental climate. It is followed by a drier phase with a second decrease in temperatures, probably this time also affecting summer temperatures. The Preboreal is 702-yr-long. The duration of most phases corresponds to published records, except for that of the Younger Dryas. Cluster and rate-of-change analyses indicate a sharp change in the terrestrial vegetation assemblages that may be caused by a sedimentary hiatus of erosive origin during this cold and dry period. As a result, the chronology of Holzmaar has to be revised most likely below the middle of the Younger Dryas. Comparison with the varve record of Meerfelder Maar, a neighbour maar lake, suggests adding 320 vy below 12025 vy.     

Lateglacial varve chronology and biostratigraphy of lakes Holzmaar and Meerfelder Maar, Germany

In this paper we briefly compare previously published data on four lateglacial sediment profiles from lakes Holzmaar and Meerfelder Maar in the Eifel region. Two of these profiles (one from each lake) are varvedated, whereas the other two pollen profiles are on depth scales. In general, the palynological signal in all profiles compares well, proving the regional validity of the individual data sets. There are some discrepancies between Holzmaar and Meerfelder Maar, however, mainly concerning varve dating of major lateglacial features, and these are explained after detailed correlation using a combination of varve dating and palynological signals. The result is a consistent varve-dated biostratigraphy for the Lateglacial in the Eifel region. Moreover, it is demonstrated that a combination of varve chronology and high resolution palynostratigraphy in several lake profiles enables even gaps of a few decades up to a few centuries to be detected, thus providing a valuable tool for precise regional palaeoenvironmental study. This multi-core study on two lakes from the same region demonstrates the likelihood of undetected errors in single-core studies on non-varved sediments.     

Complexity of the 8 ka climate event in Sweden recorded by varved lake sediments

Mineral magnetic and carbon analyses of a continuous varved lake sediment sequence in west-central Sweden (Lake Mötterudstjärnet) complement similar palaeoclimate proxies obtained from two varved lake sediment sequences in northern Sweden and one in central Finland. The varve chronology is supported by tephrochronology, palaeomagnetic secular variations and ¹⁴C AMS dating of terrestrial macrofossils. We apply a simple model in which the transport and deposition of catchment mineral matter reflect the amount of winter snow accumulation, spring snow-melt and stream discharge. Our data show that winter snow accumulation was generally enhanced in Sweden between 8100 and 7750 cal. yr BP. If dating errors are taken into account, the 350-year period of increased erosion is the geomorphic response to a multi-centennial scale climatic cooling that occurred some time between 8500 and 7500 cal. yr BP. The most significant erosion event in central Sweden was centred at 8050 cal. yr BP. It lasted 150 years (between 8100 and 7950 cal. yr BP) and is equivalent to the most extreme Holocene climate anomaly in the northern hemisphere, known as the 8 ka or 8200 cal. yr BP climate event. Our high-resolution paramagnetic susceptibility and ferrimagnetic grain-size parameters suggest that snowpack accumulation increased most significantly in northern Sweden between 7900 and 7750 cal. yr BP. We suggest that this north–south difference was a response to the re-establishment of moisture-laden westerly air masses, as meridional Atlantic overturning circulation was re-established at the beginning of the Holocene thermal maximum.     

Lateglacial and Holocene terrestrial and marine proxies reflecting climate changes in the Malangen fjord area, Norway, northeast North Atlantic

A high-resolution Younger Dryas–late Holocene record of climate and environment from the Malangen fjord has been established on the basis of two marine sediment cores. Five pollen-spore assemblage zones have been defined covering the period c . 11 500 cal. yr BP (10 200 ¹⁴C yr BP) to c . 1600 cal. yr BP (1600 ¹⁴C yr BP) with a hiatus of c . 2000 cal. years between c . 10 200 and 8100 cal. yr BP (9000 and 7300 ¹⁴C yr BP). The Holocene vegetation development from pioneer vegetation to forest development, identified in the marine pollen record, correlates well with pollen records from terrestrial sections of northern Norway. The marine pollen record was also correlated directly with marine proxy records of the bottom water temperature investigated in the same sediment cores. Correlation between the marine and terrestrial proxies suggests that changes in the influx of warm Atlantic Water to the fjord led to an instant change in the vegetation of the surrounding land area. The results thus support a strong link between marine and atmospheric mean climatic states in the North Atlantic region throughout the Holocene.     

Vegetation dynamics during the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition in the extreme northern taiga zone, northeastern European Russia

Vegetation dynamics during the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition in the extreme northern taiga zone of the Usa basin, northeastern European Russia, were reconstructed using plant macrofossil and pollen evidence from a sediment core from Lake Llet-Ti. The pollen stratigraphy during the Younger Dryas (about 12 500-11 500 cal. yr BP) is characterized by pollen types indicative of treeless arctic vegetation, whereas the macrofossil evidence shows the occurrence of scattered spruce and birch trees around the lake. The Younger Dryas-early Holocene transition is characterized by a rapid increase in vegetation density, including an increase in the birch population, followed by the expansion of the spruce population at about 10 000 cal. yr BP. Dense spruce-birch forest dominated until 5000 cal. yr BP. Our results contribute to the debate about the Lateglacial environments in northern Russia, and illustrate the importance of plant macrofossil records in Lateglacial vegetation reconstructions.     

Vegetation and climate changes over the last 30 000 years on the Leizhou Peninsula,southern China,inferred from the pollen record of Huguangyan Maar Lake

A pollen record from Huguangyan Maar Lake documents regional palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate changes in southern China over the last 30 000 years. Huguangyan Maar Lake is located close to the South China Sea (SCS) coastline and is influenced by the East Asian Monsoon (EAM). The pollen assemblages show a succession of vegetation and climate changes. During the Last Glaciation, 30–15.8 cal. ka BP, the Huguangyan area was dominated by subtropical evergreen‐deciduous forest with grassland surrounding the lake, indicating a colder and drier climate than today. During 15.8–11 cal. ka BP, the study area experienced several climatic fluctuations. From 11 to 2 cal. ka BP, the climate shifted to warmer and wetter conditions. After the Holocene Optimum in the early Holocene, the temperature and precipitation decreased. The sediment record of the last 2000 years cannot be used to interpret natural palaeoclimate changes due to the intense anthropogenic influences. Overall, however, the Huguangyan pollen archive highlights the rapid responses of subtropical vegetation to insolation changes in southern China.     

海南岛双池玛珥湖沉积中的碳、氮地球化学记录及其环境意义

根据岩芯的碳、氮含量及其比值分析并结合其他气候替代指标的分析结果，恢复了海南岛双池玛珥湖末次冰消期以来的古气候变化。全新世大暖期始于7,400a BP，结束于2,700a BP左右，期间热带地区气候湿热，植物茂盛，双池玛珥湖主要处于沼泽化阶段，蒸发量与降雨量持平。但大暖期中仍存在气候的快速波动事件，约7,200a BP和7,000a BP前后、6,000～5,900a BP、4,300～4,000a BP 期间气候转凉，有机质生产力降低。大暖期前后，分别有明显的凉温但季节性暴雨频繁的气候（8,000～7,400a BP、2,700～2,300a BP），表示气候模式发生变化，降雨量相对大于蒸发量。此时双池玛珥湖处于深水期，由于气温降低以及湖水上升引起的湖边陡壁植被覆盖面积减少，植物生产力降低，导致了岩芯中有机质的低含量。     

Holocene vegetation dynamics and inferred climate changes at Svanåvatnet, Mo i Rana, northern Norway

Pollen and plant macrofossil analyses from Svanåvatnet in northern Norway provide records of past vegetation and climate in this region from c . 8700 cal. yr BP until the present. Pollen accumulation rates and the presence of plant macrofossils indicate that Betula pubescens (birch) was present from c . 8600 cal. yr BP and Pinus sylvestris (pine) from c . 8200 cal. yr BP. Quantitative climate is reconstructed using modern pollen-climate transfer functions based on weighted-averaging partial least squares regression. A rapid increase in mean July temperature (T_jul) and mean annual precipitation (P_ann) is inferred for the early Holocene. At times when tree abundance is at its highest and most diverse, inferred T_jul indicates maximum temperatures during the mid-Holocene of about 2°C warmer than at present. During the same time period, inferred P_ann is 200–300 mm above present-day conditions until c . 3000 cal. yr BP. Mean January temperatures (T_jan) are reconstructed to be about 2°C warmer than today from 8000 to 3500 cal. yr BP. After 3500 cal. yr BP until today, a gradual decrease is seen in all the reconstructed climate parameters, together with a reduction in tree abundance and the development of a mosaic of open vegetation with grasses, dwarf shrubs and wet areas, and of woodland containing B. pubescens , P. sylvestris and Picea abies (spruce).     

A Holocene vegetation record from the Mississippi River Valley, southeastern Missouri

Pollen preserved in a peat deposit from a large swamp, the Old Field in the Mississippi River Valley near Advance, Missouri, records radiocarbon-dated vegetation changes between 9000 and about 3000 years ago. The principal feature of both the percentage and influx pollen diagrams is the replacement of arboreal pollen, primarily Quercus, Fraxinus, and Cephalanthus, with Gramineae and NAP between 8700 and 5000 years BP. This vegetation shift is interpreted as reflecting a decrease in the extent of the Old Field swamp and its associated bottomland forest species along with the expansion of a grass-dominated herb community, as a result of a reduction in available ground water. The desiccation of the swamp during this period indicates a reduction in precipitation within the ground-water source area and a shift to a drier climate in the southern Midwest. The pollen suggests that the lowest water levels and driest climate in southeastern Missouri lasted from 8700 to 6500 years BP, at which time there is a partial reappearance of swamp species. Relatively dry conditions, however, continued until at least 5000 years BP. Although pollen influx data are lacking from the upper part of the profile, the relative pollen frequencies suggest an increase in trees after 5000 BP. The replacement of the arboreal vegetation by grasses and herbs between 8700 and 5000 years BP reflects the period of maximum expansion of the Prairie Peninsula in southeastern Missouri. The Old Field swamp provides the first pollen evidence that the vegetational changes along the southern border of the Prairie Peninsula were chronologically similar to those on the northern and northeastern margins.     

Holocene temperature variations at a high-altitude site in the Eastern Alps: a chironomid record from Schwarzsee ob Sölden, Austria

Few well-dated, quantitative Holocene temperature reconstructions exist from high-altitude sites in the Central Eastern Alps. Here, we present a chironomid-based quantitative reconstruction of mean July air temperatures (T_July) throughout the Holocene for a remote high-mountain lake, Schwarzsee ob Sölden, situated above the treeline at 2796 m a.s.l. in the Austrian Alps. Applying a chironomid-temperature inference model developed from lakes of the Alpine region to a high-resolution chironomid record from the lake provides evidence for early Holocene (ca 10000–8600 cal yr BP) T_July of up to 8.5 °C, i.e. >4 °C above the modern (1977–2006) mean July temperature. The reconstruction reveals the so-called ‘8.2-ka cold event’ centered at ca 8250–8000 cal yr BP with temperatures ca 3 °C below the early-Holocene thermal maximum. Rather warm (ca 6 °C) and productive conditions prevailed during ca 7900–4500 cal yr BP. The chironomid record suggests a climate transition between ca 5200 and 4500 cal yr BP to cooler T_July. A distinct cooling trend is evident from ca 4500 until ca 2500 cal yr BP. Thereafter, the study site experienced its coldest conditions (around 4 °C or less) throughout the rest of the Holocene, with the exception of the warming trend during the late 20th century. Beside other factors, the Northern Hemisphere summer insolation seems to be the major driving force for the long-term trends in T_July at high altitudes in the Eastern Alps. Due to the extreme location of the lake and the limited temperature range represented by the applied calibration data set, the chironomid-based temperature reconstruction fails to track phases of the late-Holocene climatic history with T_July cooler than 4 °C. Further chironomid-based palaeoclimate model and down-core studies are required to address this problem, provide more realistic T_July estimates from undisturbed high-altitude lakes in the Alps, and extract a reliable regional temperature signal.     

Separating climatic and possible human impacts in the early Holocene: biotic response around the time of the 8200 cal. yr BP event

The early Holocene is characterised by rapid climate change events, which in the North Atlantic region are often associated with changes in thermohaline circulation. Superimposed on this in northwest Europe is localised evidence for human impact on the landscape, although separating climatic and anthropogenic mechanisms for environmental change is often difficult. Biotic and sedimentological evidence from a lacustrine sequence from the Inner Hebrides, Scotland, shows a considerable reduction in inferred local woodland centred upon 8250 cal. yr BP. These data correlate precisely with a distinctive rise in the charcoal:pollen ratio and hence suggest a possible Mesolithic human impact upon the vegetation around this time. A quantitative temperature reconstruction from chironomid analyses from the same sequence, supported by sedimentological data, indicates that the fall in arboreal pollen taxa occurred as climate warmed significantly during the early Holocene. This warming was followed by a significant cold event, with mean July temperatures reduced by 2°C, that lasted for at least 320 years ca. 7790–7470 cal. yr BP. Woodland recovered during this phase suggesting that the vegetation during the 8250 cal. yr BP interval was likely to have been responding to human activity, and not climate, and hence it is possible at specific sites to separate the influence of these key drivers of environmental change. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of summer temperature changes on vegetation development in Ireland during the Weichselian Lateglacial Interstadial

We analysed pollen from a sediment core from Fiddaun, a small Lateglacial lake basin in western Ireland. Results reflect the general Lateglacial vegetation development in Ireland, as reconstructed from other pollen records. The Fiddaun diagram shows a number of short‐lived regressive vegetation phases during the Interstadial. The close similarity between two pollen records from the same region (Fiddaun and Lurga) indicates that these fluctuations probably reflect regional rather than local changes. Comparison with a previously published climate reconstruction, based on a chironomid‐inferred mean July air temperature reconstruction, lithology, and oxygen and carbon isotopes of lake marl from the Fiddaun record, allowed us to establish the relationship between summer temperature and vegetation changes. Results reveal that two temporary regressive shifts in the pollen record correspond to cold oscillations, which have been correlated to Greenland Interstadial 1b and 1d. It seems that the first cold oscillation (GI‐1d) had the most distinct effect on vegetation in Ireland. In contrast, it appears that the transition from Juniperus shrubland and Empetrum heath to grassland, which is estimated at ～13.7 ka BP, was not caused by decreasing summer temperatures, as no substantial change is observed in the climate proxies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Climatic influence upon early to mid‐Holocene fire regimes within temperate woodlands: a multi‐proxy reconstruction from the New Forest,southern England

A combined pollen, charcoal and climatic record is presented from Cranes Moor, southern England, covering the period c. 10 500–5850 cal a BP. It is shown that the occurrence of burning is closely related to natural processes, including prevailing climatic conditions and vegetation composition. These burning events are often linked to an increase in the summer moisture deficit, implying that the timing of burning events is linked to periods of warmer/drier climate during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (c. 11 000–5000 cal a BP). These events play an important role in the vegetation composition and succession around the site. The nature of the burning recorded at the site shows strong similarities with other records from northern Europe. This study throws caution on suggestions that fire in the Holocene record from areas such as the British Isles is linked only to human activity, and enhances the possibility that natural fire incidence played an important role in natural woodland structure dynamics.     

Lateglacial vegetation and environment at the mouth of Hardangerfjorden, western Norway

This article is a detailed pollen analysis and accurate AMS chronology of the Lateglacial of two coastal sites in western Norway. The area was deglaciated around 14 600 cal. yr BP or shortly before. The earliest vegetation was open, with a pioneer mosaic of vegetation on mineral soils, including snowbed communities, and plants on wind-blown ridges. Later, more stable vegetation developed with Empetrum as an important constituent. Scattered tree birches were established in the area in the last part of the Bølling/Allerød (GI-1). The pollen record from Vassnestjern indicates three short-lasting cold periods: c . 14 050 to 13 900, 13 800 to 13 700 and 13 150 to 13 000 cal. yr BP. It has been suggested that the last-mentioned period, detected at both sites, corresponds with the Gerzensee/Killarney Oscillation. From about 12 750 cal. yr BP, the vegetation was affected by the Younger Dryas (GS-1) cooling, which caused the vegetation to break up and humus-soil communities to disappear. In the early Holocene, the humus-soil communities re-established and open birch forests developed. This Lateglacial vegetation development is broadly similar to the reconstructed vegetation development in other parts of southwestern Norway.     

Geophysical evidence for Holocene lake-level change in southern California (Dry Lake)

Bird, B. W., Kirby, M. E., Howat, I. M. & Tulaczyk, S. 2009: Geophysical evidence for Holocene lake-level change in southern California (Dry Lake). Boreas , 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2009.00114.x. ISSN 0300-9483.
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) data are used in combination with previously published sediment cores to develop a Holocene history of basin sedimentation in a small, alpine lake in southern California (Dry Lake). The GPR data identify three depositional sequences spanning the past 9000 calendar years before present (cal. yr BP). Sequence I represents the first phase of an early Holocene highstand. A regression between <8320 and >8120 cal. yr BP separates Sequence I from Sequence II, perhaps associated with the 8200 cal. yr BP cold event. Sequence II represents the second phase of the early-to-mid Holocene highstand. Sequence IIIa represents a permanent shift to predominantly low lake stands beginning ∼5550 cal. yr BP. This mid-Holocene shift was accompanied by a dramatic decrease in sedimentation rate as well as a contraction of the basin's area of sedimentation. By ∼1860 cal. yr BP (Sequence IIIb), the lake was restricted to the modern, central basin. Taken together, the GPR and core data indicate a wet early Holocene followed by a long-term Holocene drying trend. The similarity in ages of the early Holocene highstand across the greater southern California region suggests a common external forcing – perhaps modulation of early Holocene storm activity by insolation. However, regional lake level records are less congruous following the initial early Holocene highstand, which may indicate a change in the spatial domain of climate forcing(s) throughout the Holocene in western North America.     

苏拉威西海周边地区全新世植被演化及气候变化

全新世时期的环境和气候变化是全球气候模拟、预测中不可或缺的资料.对苏拉威西海西北部MD98-2178孔(3.6200°N,118.7000°E,水深1 984 m)全新世的样品进行孢粉分析和浮游有孔虫氧稳定同位素测试,重建全新世苏拉威西海周边地区植被演化和气候变化图景.根据孢粉记录得到:在全新世早期至7 ka BP时,各孢粉组合浓度剧烈下降,指示海平面处于上升阶段;在7~4 ka BP时,各孢粉组合浓度都处于低谷,体现为高海平面期;在4 ka BP之后,孢粉记录则显示海平面有小幅的下降.在全新世中期,即5~4 ka BP,热带高山雨林花粉含量明显上升,表明是温度低值期.蕨类孢子记录显示降雨量在全新世早期是持续增加的,但在全新世中期之后,降雨量有所减少,这与陆地孢粉记录和印尼石笋记录的结果相似,体现全新世该地区降雨量受海陆格局和太阳活动共同影响.      

The importance of plant macrofossils in the reconstruction of Lateglacial vegetation and climate: examples from Scotland,western Norway,and Minnesota,USA

Lateglacial and early Holocene (ca 14–9000 ¹⁴C yr BP; 15–10,000 cal yr BP) pollen records are used to make vegetation and climate reconstructions that are the basis for inferring mechanisms of past climate change and for validating palaeoclimate model simulations. Therefore, it is important that reconstructions from pollen data are realistic and reliable. Two examples of the need for independent validation of pollen interpretations are considered here. First, Lateglacial-interstadial Betula pollen records in northern Scotland and western Norway have been interpreted frequently as reflecting the presence of tree-birch that has strongly influenced the resulting climate reconstructions. However, no associated tree-birch macrofossils have been found so far, and the local dwarf-shrub or open vegetation reconstructed from macrofossil evidence indicates climates too cold for tree-birch establishment. The low local pollen production resulted in the misleadingly high percentage representation of long-distance tree-birch pollen. Second, in the Minnesotan Lateglacial Picea zone, low pollen percentages from thermophilous deciduous trees could derive either from local occurrences of the tree taxa in the Picea/Larix forest or from long-distance dispersal from areas further south. The regionally consistent occurrence of low pollen percentages, even in sites with local tundra vegetation, and the lack of any corresponding macrofossil records support the hypothesis that the trees were not locally present. Macrofossils in the Picea zone represent tundra vegetation or Picea/Larix forest associated with typically boreal taxa, suggesting it was too cold for most thermophilous deciduous trees to grow. Any long-distance tree pollen is not masked by the low pollen production of tundra and Picea and Larix and therefore it is registered relatively strongly in the percentage pollen spectra.Many Lateglacial pollen assemblages have no recognisable modern analogues and contain high representations of well-dispersed ‘indicator’ taxa such as Betula or Artemisia. The spectra could have been derived from vegetation types that do not occur today, perhaps responding to the different climate that resulted from the different balance of climate forcing functions then. However, the available contemporaneous plant-macrofossil assemblages can be readily interpreted in terms of modern vegetation communities, suggesting that the pollen assemblages could have been influenced by mixing of locally produced pollen with long-distance pollen from remote vegetation types that are then over-represented in situations with low local pollen production. In such situations, it is important to validate the climate reconstructions made from the pollen data with a macrofossil record.     

Synchronization of late-glacial vegetation changes at Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA with the North Atlantic Event Stratigraphy

Late-glacial (17–11 cal ka BP) pollen records from midwestern North America show similar vegetation trends; however, poor dating resolution, wide-interval pollen counts, and variable sedimentation rates have prevented the direct correlation with the North Atlantic Event Stratigraphy as represented in the Greenland ice-core records, thus preventing the understanding of the teleconnections and mechanisms of late-Quaternary events in the Northern Hemisphere. The widespread occurrence of late-glacial vegetation and climates with no modern analogs also hinders late-glacial climate reconstructions. A high-resolution pollen record with a well-controlled age model from Crystal Lake in northeastern Illinois reveals vegetation and climate conditions during the late-glacial and early Holocene intervals. Late-glacial Crystal Lake pollen assemblages, dominated by Picea mariana and Fraxinus nigra with lesser amounts of Abies and Larix, suggest relatively wet climate despite fluctuations between colder and warmer temperatures. Vegetation changes at Crystal Lake are coeval with millennial-scale trends in the NGRIP ice-core record, but major shifts in vegetation at Crystal Lake lag the NGRIP record by 300–400 yr. This lag may be due to the proximity of the Laurentide ice sheet, the ice sheet's inherent slowness in response to rapid climate changes, and its effect on frontal boundary conditions and lake-effect temperatures.     

Holocene flooding history of the Lower Tagus Valley (Portugal)

The present paper aims to reconstruct the Lower Tagus Valley flooding history for the last ca. 6500 a, to explore the suitability of pollen‐based local vegetation development in supporting the reconstruction of flooding history, and to explain fluvial activity changes in terms of allogenic (climate, human impact) and autogenic (system intrinsic) processes. The flooding history has been determined by cored sedimentary records located ～18 km apart in distal, low‐energy backswamps on both sides of the Tagus channel. In these low‐energy backswamps, fine‐grained sediment layers deposited from suspended load of overbank flood water reflect periods with multiple overbank floods. By means of a multi‐proxy approach (sedimentology, magnetic susceptibility, grain size, loss‐on‐ignition, carbonate content and pollen), sedimentary and environmental changes were identified. At both sites, synchronous lithological intervals accumulated, suggesting a common origin for the changes in fluvial activity since ca. 6500 cal. a BP. Based on lithological changes, three phases of high fluvial activity (6500–5500, 4900–3500 and 1000–0 cal. a BP) and two phases of low fluvial activity (5500–4900 and 3500–1000 cal. a BP) were identified. Two periods with dominant allogenic controls on fluvial activity in the Lower Tagus Valley were identified: relative sea level (6500–5500 cal. a BP) and human impact (1000–0 cal. a BP). During the intermediate period, changes in fluvial activity may have been caused by climate (5500–1000 cal. BP), but unambiguous correlations are difficult to make. This is due to the way allogenic controls are translated through the fluvial system, the geomorphological differences between upstream and downstream studies and autogenic processes. The comparison of local vegetation development and flooding phases as reconstructed using sedimentology shows a limited added value of using local palynology as a proxy for fluvial activity. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

安徽巢湖湖泊沉积物孢粉-炭屑组合记录的全新世以来植被与气候演变

利用湖泊钻孔的孢粉及炭屑分析资料,探讨了安徽巢湖湖泊沉积物孢粉-炭屑组合记录的全新世以来植被与气候演变。孢粉-炭屑记录表明：本区9870-6040 cal.{a BP},植被是以壳斗科的落叶、常绿属种为主的落叶阔叶、常绿阔叶混交林,气候呈现温和略干的特点;6040-4860 cal.{a BP},植被是以落叶栎类、栗属、青冈属和栲/石栎属为主的落叶阔叶、常绿阔叶混交林,气候由前一阶段的温和略干变为温暖湿润,进入全新世最适宜气候期;4860-2170 cal.{a BP},植被是以落叶栎类占绝对优势的落叶阔叶、常绿阔叶混交林,气温逐渐降低、湿度下降,气候温和干燥,环境整体向着干旱趋势转化,2170 cal.{a BP}左右出现一次明显的干旱事件;2170-1040 cal.{a BP},森林退缩,落叶阔叶、常绿阔叶混交林迅速被破坏,演替成以禾本科为主的草地,气候处于转型时期,总体上温和湿润;1040-200 cal.{a BP},木本植物仅零星分布,可能存在针叶阔叶混交林植被,植被类型逐渐演替成以禾本科、蒿属和蓼属等为主的草丛,其中包括较多的农作物,气候温凉稍湿;200 cal.{a BP}以来,湖区周围零星分布有阔叶乔木,松林在远处可能有分布,植被仍是以禾本科、蒿属和蓼属等为主的草丛,气候相对温暖湿润,但也有若干变凉干的波动,湖泊富营养化水平逐渐增加,人类活动已经对环境变化产生了较大的影响。