The First Appearance of Cattle in Denmark Occurred 6000 Years Ago: An Effect of Cultural or Climate and Environmental Changes

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from bones of contemporaneous Late Atlantic aurochs and early cattle in eastern Denmark are significantly different and provide information on the origin and feeding strategies of the earliest domestic cattle. The data show that the early cattle were feeding on grass right from the beginning 4000 cal. yr BC. In contrast, the youngest aurochs population primarily browsed and grazed from the dense forest floor resulting in rather negative δ¹³C values measured on bone collagen. The oldest aurochs have similar isotope values to the earlier cattle, whereas the youngest aurochs have similar values to Late Atlantic red deer from the same locality. As eastern Denmark was largely covered by forest, speculations on the origin of the grazing areas are many. The grass may have grown in openings in the forest, at the forest fringe, or more likely on the newly reclaimed coastal land areas exposed by the decreasing rate of eustatic sea‐level rise contemporaneously with isostatic uplift, during the Littorina transgressions. The stable isotope values do not indicate that leaf foddering of the early cattle was of importance.     

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges as complementary sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of Holocene relative sea‐level changes

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges are genetically independent, though non‐continuous, sedimentary archives. We here combine the results from two recently published studies in order to produce an 8000‐year‐long record of Holocene relative sea‐level changes on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat, Denmark. The reconstruction of the initial mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise is based on the sedimentary infill from topography‐confined coastal lagoons (Sander et al., Boreas, 2015b). Sea‐level index points over the mid‐ to late Holocene period of sea‐level stability and fall are retrieved from the internal structures of a wide beach‐ridge system (Hede et al., The Holocene, 2015). Data from sediment coring, georadar and absolute dating are thus combined in an inter‐disciplinary approach that is highly reproducible in micro‐tidal environments characterised by high sediment supply. We show here that the commonly proximate occurrence of coastal lagoons and beach ridges allows us to produce seamless time series of relative sea‐level changes from field sites in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments.     

High‐resolution reconstruction of a coastal barrier system: impact of Holocene sea‐level change

This study presents a detailed reconstruction of the sedimentary effects of Holocene sea‐level rise on a modern coastal barrier system. Increasing concern over the evolution of coastal barrier systems due to future accelerated rates of sea‐level rise calls for a better understanding of coastal barrier response to sea‐level changes. The complex evolution and sequence stratigraphic framework of the investigated coastal barrier system is reconstructed using facies analysis, high‐resolution optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating. During the formation of the coastal barrier system starting 8 to 7 ka rapid relative sea‐level rise outpaced sediment accumulation. Not before rates of relative sea‐level rise had decreased to ca 2 mm yr^?1 did sediment accumulation outpace sea‐level rise. From ca 5·5 ka, rates of regionally averaged sediment accumulation increased to 4·3 mm yr^?1 and the back‐barrier basin was filled in. This increase in sediment accumulation resulted from retreat of the barrier island and probably also due to formation of a tidal inlet close to the study area. Continued transgression and shoreface retreat created a distinct hiatus and wave ravinement surface in the seaward part of the coastal barrier system before the barrier shoreline stabilized between 5·0 ka and 4·5 ka. Back‐barrier shoreline erosion due to sediment starvation in the back‐barrier basin was pronounced from 4·5 to 2·5 ka but, in the last 2·5 kyr, barrier sedimentation has kept up with and outpaced sea‐level. In the last 0·4 kyr the coastal barrier system has been prograding episodically. Sediment accumulation shows considerable variation, with periods of rapid sediment deposition and periods of non‐deposition or erosion resulting in a highly punctuated sediment record. The study demonstrates how core‐based facies interpretations supported by a high‐resolution chronology and a well‐documented sea‐level history allow identification of depositional environments, erosion surfaces and hiatuses within a very homogeneous stratigraphy, and allow a detailed temporal reconstruction of a coastal barrier system in relation to sea‐level rise and sediment supply.     

Luminescence dating of buried cobble surfaces from sandy beach ridges: a case study from Denmark

Here we investigate the use of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) for dating cobbles from the body of successive beach ridges and compare cobble surface‐derived ages to standard quartz OSL ages from sand. Between four and eight cobbles and sand samples (age control) were dated with the luminescence method, taken from the modern beach and from beach ridges on the south and north extremes of a prograding spit on the westernmost coast of Lolland, Denmark. Luminescence‐depth profiles perpendicular to the surfaces of the cobbles show that the feldspar infrared signals stimulated at 50 °C were fully reset to various depths into the cobbles prior to final deposition; as a result, the equivalent doses determined from close to the surface of such cobbles can be used to calculate burial ages. Beach‐ridge burial ages given by the average of ages of individual cobbles taken from the same site are consistent, within errors, with the ages derived from the sand samples. Cobble‐ and sand‐derived ages show that the southernmost beach ridge at Albuen was formed around 2 ka ago, indicating that this sandy spit is younger than other coastal systems in Denmark. The agreement between ages derived from clasts and from standard quartz OSL in this study confirms that, even in the absence of sandy sediments, we can reliably date sites using OSL by targeting larger clasts. In addition, the record of prior light exposure contained in the shape of the cobbles’ luminescence‐depth profile removes one of the major uncertainties (i.e. the degree of signal reset prior to burial) in the luminescence dating of high latitude sites.     

Sedimentary indications and absolute chronology of Holocene relative sea‐level changes retrieved from coastal lagoon deposits on Samsø, Denmark

Coastal lagoons are a typical feature of the landscape in central Denmark. The lagoons formed when basins within the inherited glacial topography were flooded by the mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise. The transgression initiated coastal geomorphological processes and prompted marine sedimentation in the inundated areas. Despite their common occurrence and wide distribution in the area, coastal lagoons and their deposits have rarely been studied as sedimentary archives. The absolute chronology established for the basal marine deposits in sediment cores retrieved from coastal lagoons on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat Sea, central Denmark, is evidence of a nearly synchronous onset of marine sedimentation at different elevations. This is interpreted as a new indication of a period of very rapid relative sea‐level (RSL) rise between 7.6 and 7.2 ka BP. Following a period of RSL highstand, a marked facies change in the deposits from an inactive lagoon yields consistent ages of around 4.1 ka BP and may be an indication of a marked RSL fall. This study illustrates the potential of coastal lagoons as sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of RSL in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments elsewhere.     

Morphological records of storm floods exemplified by the impact of the 1872 Baltic storm on a sandy spit system in south‐eastern Denmark

Beach‐ridge systems are important geo‐archives providing evidence for past wave climate including catastrophic storm flood events. This study investigates the morphological impacts of the 1872 Baltic storm flood on a beach‐ridge system (sandy spit) in south‐eastern Denmark and evaluates the frequency of extreme storm flood events in the area over a longer time perspective. This paper combines field studies of morphology and sedimentary deposits, studies of historical maps, digital terrain model, ground‐penetrating radar profiles, and luminescence dating. Sea water reached 2.8 m above mean sea level (amsl) during peak inundation and, based on studies of the morphological impacts of the 1872 storm flood, the event can be divided into four phases. Phase 1: increasing mean water levels and wave activity at the beach brought sediments from the beach (intertidal bars and normal berm) higher up in the profile and led to the formation of a storm‐berm. Phase 2: water levels further increased and sediment in the upper part of the profile continued to build up the storm‐berm. Phase 3: water levels now reached the top of the dune ridge and were well above the storm‐berm level. Sea water was breaching the dune ridge at several sites and wash‐over fans were generated until a level where the mean water level had dropped too much. Phase 4: the non‐vegetated wash‐over fans functioned as pathways for aeolian sand transport and relatively high dunes were formed in particular along the margins of the fan where aeolian sand was trapped by existing vegetation. The studied beach‐ridge system records about 4500 years of accumulation; the storm flood sediments described are unique suggesting that the 1872 Baltic storm flood event was an extreme event. Thus studies of beach‐ridge systems form a new source for understanding storm surge risk. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Archean chemical weathering at three localities on the Canadian Shield

Sapropelite developed on a granodiorite basement below the Archean Steeprock Group in the western Superior Structural Province of Canada, weathered materials from a 3.15 Ga granitic basement to the Archean Yellowknife Supergroup in the Slave Structural Province, and weathered detritus from contemporaneous komatiites and gneissic basement of the Archean Prince Albert Group in northern Churchill Structural Province, have been analysed. The deviation of the weakly metamorphosed weathered material from the chemical composition of their precursors is comparable to that seen in more recent weathered profiles from similar source materials. This includes the enhancement of ferric to ferrous iron ratios, and potash to soda, lime and magnesia ratios. There is also an increase in lighter REE and a depletion of heavier REE. Quartz rich sediments immediately above the unconformity, derived from the basement granitoids, may be enriched in aluminum and iron, and yield chloritoid under proper metamorphic conditions. Sediments formed from mixed sources, such as weathered gneissic basement and contemporaneous komatiitic volcanics, yield anomalous resistate sedimentary mixtures such as chromiferous quartzites. Based on the data given here, there is no need to postulate that different weathering and/or ground water systems were operative during the Archean, compared to more recent times. On the other hand the complicated weathering and diagenetic history that altered material undergoes below a subsiding unconformity, relies as much or more on the buffering capacity of the enclosed rock mass as on the atmospheric conditions prevalent at the time of weathering. Hence weathering profiles, old and new, are more a response to local environmental conditions within the rock than the composition of the atmosphere.     

哀牢山亚热带常绿阔叶林林区太阳辐射特征

利用中国科学院西双版纳热带植物园哀牢山森林生态系统研究站林外自动气象站2005-02到2007-12的辐射观测数据,对哀牢山北部山顶亚热带常绿阔叶林林区的太阳辐射平衡各分量的年、季节和日变化特征进行了分析,得出哀牢山林区太阳辐射年总辐射为5 146.4 MJ/(m2·a),干季的太阳总辐射量(2 764.7 MJ/m2)占全年总量的53.7%,雨季的太阳总辐射量(2 381.7 MJ/m2)占全年总量的46.3%.各辐射分量年值占总辐射年值的百分率为净辐射41.3%,反射辐射21.O%,有效辐射37.7%.太阳辐射各分量占太阳总辐射的比率在不同的季节由于天气状况和大气中含水量的不同存在一定的差异,反射辐射和有效辐射的分配率均是干季大于雨季,净辐射的分配率则是雨季大于干季.从全年来看,净辐射分配率的变幅最大(31.1%～51.9%),有效辐射次之(28.6%～48.6%),反射辐射最小(18.4%~24.2%);从分配率的日变化可知,反射辐射和有效辐射均是清晨和傍晚较高,昼间较小,净辐射则相反,各辐射分量分配率在昼间的变化均较小.不同季节各辐射分量占总辐射的比重不同,干季有效辐射所占比重最大,其次是净辐射,反射辐射最小;雨季净辐射所占比例最大,其次是有效辐射,反射辐射最小.与相近纬度的鼎湖山和鹤山林区相比,哀牢山林区总辐射量高于两地,而年均气温(热量)低于两地,由此可以认为哀牢山林区在较低的气温条件下能分布大面积的中山湿性常绿阔叶林,且生长繁茂、发育良好,较强的太阳辐射应是其重要原因之一.