Advances in correlation of European high-resolution palaeoclimatic records
by
Achim Brauer
GFZ Potsdam
Coauthors: J.F.W. Negendank (GFZ Potsdam), ELDP Members

Understanding regional aspects of past climatic changes requires precise dating and correlation of high-resolution palaeoclimatic archives. Therefore, it has been one of the main goals of the European Lake Drilling Programme (ELDP) to further such correlation of European sediment records. ELDP is a networking project that during the past five years (1996-2000) has stimulated links amongst scientists working with high-resolution archives of environmental change in Europe. A major outcome of this joint effort is a considerable progress in terms of both, development of methods and the establishment of a network of regional links between high-resolution records. This includes not only terrestrial but also marine-terrestrial links. Here we present examples from (1) the Mediterranean region and (2) Central Europe. A further example of correlation of Scandinavian lake records is presented in a separate poster (I. Snowball et al.).

(1) The high-resolution sediment record of the last 100, 000 years from Lago Grande di Monticchio in Southern Italy is dated by varve counting and precise sedimentation rate calculation based on measured varve thickness. It is shown that palaeomagnetic inclination variations from this record can be used for correlation with lake records from Greece and Israel. Furthermore, the deposition of >340 tephra layers in the Monticchio sediments enable detailed network of links to many marine cores from the Mediterranean Sea as well as many lake records even as far North as the Southern Alps.

(2) Varved lateglacial sediment records along a West-East transect from Western Germany to Poland (Meerfelder Maar - Hämelsee - Lake Gosciaz) are correlated based on independent varve timescales. In result, it has been proven even for the very short biozones of the Lateglacial (100 - 1100 years) that they have been of about the same duration along this transect. An extension of this correlation network to varved records in the peri-alpine area in Southern Germany and Switzerland shows that despite terminological differences of biozones between the northern and southern part the sedimentological and palynological signals are well correlated. Further teleconnections to the GRIP Greenland ice core (again based on independent increment chronologies) proves that lateglacial climate oscillations in the whole area have been synchronous within the error margin of the timescales.

http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/pb3/pb33/eldphome/

Date received: March 30, 2001

Copyright © 2001 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cagc-81.