Climate stability during the Eemian – new pollen evidence from the Nidzica site,northern Poland

Bińka, K., Nitychoruk, J. & Dzier?ek, J. 2010: Climate stability during the Eemian – new pollen evidence from the Nidzica site, northern Poland. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2010.00179.x. ISSN 0300‐9483 Interglacial sediments at Nidzica, northern Poland were investigated by means of pollen and isotope analysis. These deposits accumulated in an extensive basin through most of the Eemian and Early Weichselian, practically without stratigraphic gaps. Continuous subsidence of the basin floor has resulted in the accumulation of a great thickness of lacustrine sediments, consisting mostly of calcareous gyttja. The course of pollen and isotope curves in the interglacial interval does not indicate the abrupt climatic shifts reported from some other continental climatic archives. Particularly important has been the reconstruction of the final stages of the Eemian, a potential analogue for future climatic change in the late Holocene. At Nidzica, this period is registered as a gradual modification of forest composition, devoid of any pulsations in which temperate forest is followed by terminal, boreal pine–birch communities.