High-frequency climatic oscillations during the last deglaciation as revealed by oxygen-isotope records of benthic organisms (Ammersee,southern Germany)

High-resolution oxygen-isotope records of benthic ostracods and molluscs from Ammersee, southern Germany, show high-frequency climatic changes during the last deglaciation and parallel in great detail published faunal and floral variations reconstructed from Norwegian Sea sediments and isotope variations in Greenland ice cores. The marine and the terrestrial records give evidence of a synchronous late glacial climatic development in Greenland, NW- and Mid-Europe. However,¹⁴C-ages of the supraregional climatic events and of two tephra layers in the marine sediments of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean are significantly older than the¹⁴C-ages of the corresponding horizons on land. These differences strongly suggest that major short-term events have affected the exchangeable carbon on earth during the dramatic environmental changes related to the deglaciation and in particular have affected the CO₂-distribution within the ocean and between ocean and atmosphere. Dating methods independent of climatic variations and of the global carbon budget should be given priority to refine the timescales of the marine and atmospheric processes during the last deglaciation.This is the fourth paper in a series of papers published in this issue on high-resolution paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the Sixth International Palaeolimnology Symposium held 19–21 April, 1993 at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Dr. A. F. Lotter and Dr. M. Sturm served as guest editors for these papers.