Environmental changes recorded in the sequence of lake-peat bogs in the Eemian Interglacial and Vistulian on the basis of multi-proxy data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Mirosław-Grabowska ◽  
Ryszard Krzysztof Borówka ◽  
Magdalena Radzikowska ◽  
Joanna Sławińska ◽  
Anna Hrynowiecka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Peat Bogs ◽  
Proxy Data ◽  
Eemian Interglacial

scholarly journals Preliminary Analysis of European Small Mammal Faunas of the Eemian Interglacial: Species Composition and Species Diversity at a Regional Scale

Quaternary ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Markova ◽  
Andrey Puzachenko
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Small Mammal ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Mammal Faunas ◽  
Eemian Interglacial

Small mammal remains obtained from the European localities dated to the Eemian (Mikulino) age have been analyzed for the first time at a regional scale based on the present biogeographical regionalization of Europe. The regional faunas dated to the warm interval in the first part of the Late Pleistocene display notable differences in fauna composition, species richness, and diversity indices. The classification of regional faunal assemblages revealed distinctive features of small mammal faunas in Eastern and Western Europe during the Eemian (=Mikulino, =Ipswichian) Interglacial. Faunas of the Iberian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula, and Sardinia Island appear to deviate from the other regions. In the Eemian Interglacial, the maximum species richness of small mammals (≥40 species) with a relatively high proportion of typical forest species was recorded in Western and Central Europe and in the western part of Eastern Europe. The lowest species richness (5–14 species) was typical of island faunas and of those in the north of Eastern Europe. The data obtained make it possible to reconstruct the distribution of forest biotopes and open habitats (forest-steppe and steppe) in various regions of Europe. Noteworthy is a limited area of forests in the south and in the northeastern part of Europe. In these regions, it seems likely that under conditions of relatively high temperatures characteristic of the Last Interglacial and an insufficient moisture supply there could exist open forest stands or forest-steppe landscapes, as suggested by the presence of species indicative of forest-steppe and steppe north of the forest zone. The results obtained are useful in modeling changes in the mammal faunas as well as environmental changes in entire Europe due to global climatic changes (including the global warming recorded at present).

Millennial and Century Climate Changes in the Colorado Alpine

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Elias
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alpine Tundra ◽  
Tundra Zone ◽  
Proxy Data ◽  
Alpine Regions ◽  
Ecological Changes

Ecosystems are the products of regional biotic history, shaped by environmental changes that have occurred over thousands of years. Accordingly, ecological changes take place at many timescales, but perhaps none is more significant than the truly long-term scale of centuries and millennia, for it is at these timescales that ecosystems form, break apart, and reform in new configurations. This is certainly true in the alpine regions, where glaciations have dominated the landscape for perhaps 90% of the last 2.5 million years (Elias 1996a). In the alpine tundra zone, the periods between ice ages have been relatively brief (10,000–15,000 years), whereas glaciations have been long (90,000–100,000 years). Glacial ice has been the dominant force in shaping alpine landscapes. Glacial climate has been the filter through which the alpine biota has had to pass repeatedly in the Pleistocene. This chapter discusses climatic events during the last 25,000 years (figure 18.1). At the beginning of this interval, temperatures cooled throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere, culminating in the last glacial maximum (LGM), about 20,000–18,000 yr b.p. (radiocarbon years before present). The Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets advanced southward, covering most of Canada and the northern tier of the United States. Glaciers also crept down from mountaintops to fill high valleys in the Rocky Mountains. In the Southern Rockies, the alpine tundra zone crept downslope into what is now the subalpine, beyond the reach of the relatively small montane glaciers. By about 14,000 yr b.p., the glacier margins began to recede, leading eventually to the postglacial environments of the Holocene. It is now becoming apparent that the climate changes that drove these events were surprisingly rapid and intense. This chapter examines the evidence for these climatic changes and the biotic response to them in the alpine zone of Colorado. To reconstruct the environmental changes of this period, we must rely on proxy data, that is, the fossil record of plants and animals, combined with geologic evidence, such as the age and location of glacial moraines in mountain valleys. As of this writing, the principal biological proxy data that have been studied in the Rocky Mountains are fossil pollen and insects.

The flora and fauna of late Pleistocene deposits on the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy

1987 ◽  
Vol 315 (1172) ◽  
pp. 231-265 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Cold Stage ◽  
Glacial Stage ◽  
Loess Deposits ◽  
Multidisciplinary Studies ◽  
Eemian Interglacial ◽  
Age Determinations

The transition from late interglacial (temperate) to early glacial (cold) stage environments, involving not only climatic deterioration, but also a fall in sea level, has been rarely described. The Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, lies beyond Pleistocene ice limits, and hence has less stratigraphic complexity than areas characterized by ice advances and retreats. Furthermore, it possesses a number of closely spaced coastal sites where late interglacial to early glacial organomineral sediments are present. These sediments overlie interglacial raised beach deposits, or more ancient wavecut rock platforms, and are succeeded by periglacial (head and loess) deposits. These localities thus afforded an ideal opportunity for detailed multidisciplinary studies of sea level and terrestrial environmental change. Investigation of the geomorphology and stratigraphy was accompanied by palaeobotanical and palaeoentomological analysis of the organomineral deposits. The fossil evidence shows that as sea level fell from a height similar to the present day, the climate cooled from temperate to arctic, and that these changes were accompanied by major modifications in the flora and fauna. Previous stratigraphic, pedological and palynological studies of the sites have been taken to imply multiple environmental changes, with ages ranging from Elsterian to Weichselian. The research described here, together with radiometric age determinations, implies that the raised beach and organomineral sediments were associated with a single marine regression between ca . 121 and 45 ka, that is, late in the Eemian Interglacial and early in the Weichselian Glacial stage. These environmental changes are discussed with reference to those recorded at sites in France and Britain that probably date from the same period.

scholarly journals History of the development of Eemian Interglacial lakes on the basis of Cladocera subfossil analysis (Central and Eastern Poland)

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Monika Niska
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Microscopic Analysis ◽  
Bottom Part ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Continuous Record ◽  
Igcp Project ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eemian Interglacial

Abstract This paper presents the results of Cladocera subfossil analysis using material obtained from five paleolakes of the Eemian Interglacial located in central and north-eastern Poland. Analyses of Cladocera subfossils in Poland and other parts of the world have revealed detailed results covering the last 13,000 years. Cladocera subfossils from sediments older than the last glaciation have been analysed occasionally. The first analyses of older sediments were conducted in Denmark by Frey in 1962. In Poland, the first analyses of this type were conducted on material obtained in Konin. The Eemian lakes subject to the study were formed at the end of the Warta Glaciation in tunnel and kettle holes. A continuous record of environmental changes throughout the Eemian Interglacial until the early Vistulian Glaciation has been preserved in lake sediments. The bottom part of the profile consists of sands and silts, followed by gyttja and peat. The upper part of the profile contains peat and organic shales. Cladocera subfossils found in Eemian sediments were thinner and their structure was more damaged. The low degree of subfossil preservation forced a change in the method of preparation of subfossils for microscopic analysis as required by IGCP Project 158. Cladocera species determined within the studied paleolakes correspond to the present-day species inhabiting the area of Poland and Europe. The species composition and the variability in the frequency of Cladocera specimens made it possible to distinguish discrete phases of lake development associated with changes in temperature and water level, trophic state and the presence of macrophytes. The results of Cladocera analysis are well correlated with data obtained in pollen analyses.

scholarly journals La reconstrucción de paleoambientes cuaternarios: ideas, ejemplos y una síntesis de la evolución del Holoceno en el NW de la Península Ibérica

2000 ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Martínez Cortizas
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Peat Bogs ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Emergent Complexity ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Glacier Ice ◽  
Northwestern Spain ◽  
The Many ◽  
Península Ibérica

This paper is the consequence af an invited presentation given at the Facultade de Letras do Porto during lhe II Jornadas do Quaternário «Quaternary, Natural and Cultural Heritage» held at Porto (Portugal). It deals wiith a personal view on how to reconstruct Quaternary palaeonvironments, based on the experience gained during lhe last fifteen years collaborating with researchers of many disciplines, although I have to aknowledge lo archaeologists and prehistoricians for triggering my interest. Present environment can be considered as a dynamic system of emergent complexity, product of the many interactions -feedbacks, couplings, perturbations, inductions, metachronicities, ... – stablished amongst its constituent parts -basically the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the biosphere; playing humans an increasing role among biota-. So have to be considered past environments or palaeoenvironments. This complexity demands an integrated, interdisciplinary view of research for a reasonable reconstruction. The object of analysis is the archive, an entity that contains a record of environmental changes -polar and glacier ice and snow, lake and ocean sediments, peat bogs, tree rings, ... - While any property resulting from a change that can be measured and interpreted can be considered as a signal -biotic or abiotic-. Natural archives are the memory of the geosystem. Under the influence of environmental conditions superficial formations of the lithosphere undergo processes that are responsible for their properties - physico-chemical, mineralogical, biological, etc, ... - In this sense, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction tries to follow the inverse intinerary: from present observed properties to stablish the processes related to their genesis and from those we try to uncover the past environments that governed them. Nevertheless, we have to be aware of the fact that progressive and regressive pathways are both likely to have ocurred, so information was sometimes stored and sometimes deleted from the archives. In fact, the further we go back in time the less information we are able toobtain. It is also important to remind that reconstruction is always partial, as it is impossible to obtain cluesof all the complexities, and even some past environments may have had conditions which are not comparable to any present environment. With these ideas as background framework I briefly introduce here some aspects on the properties of archives and signals, propose an approach to Quaternary palaeoenvironments reconstruction, give some insights on the relationships between human activities, archaeological sites and past environments, put some examples of archives we have been using and results obtained, and end up with a synthesis of the Holocene evolution of Northwestern Spain.

scholarly journals The disintegration of populations of underwater plants in soft water lakes enriched with acidic organic matter

2011 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Józef Szmeja ◽  
Katarzyna Bociąg
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Submerged Macrophytes ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Water Concentration ◽  
Soft Water ◽  
Peat Bogs ◽  
Humic Lakes ◽  
Fontinalis Antipyretica ◽  
Doc Concentration

The characteristics of habitats, individuals and populations of four submerged macrophytes, <em>Lobelia dortmanna </em>L., <em>Isoetes lacustris </em>L., <em>Sphagnum denticulatum </em>Brid. and <em>Fontinalis antipyretica </em>Hedw., were studied in 12 soft water oligohumic lakes which had no inflow of allochtonic DOM and the DOC concentration in the water was &lt;4.0 mg C dm<sup>-3</sup> and 13 humic lakes enriched with allochthonous dissolved organic matter (DOM) from drained peat bogs and ranging in DOC water concentration from 4.1 to 44.0 mg C dm<sup>-3</sup>. The analyses of population disintegration were conducted basing on characteristics of individuals (size, habitat, fertility) and populations (aggregation density index, settlement index of the population area). The settlement index of the population area for <em>Lobelia</em>, <em>Fontinalis</em>, <em>Isoetes</em>, <em>Sphagnum</em> decreased from 8.4 to 6.2 g d.w. m<sup>-2</sup>, 4.6 to 0.01 g d.w. m<sup>-2</sup>, 85.4 to &lt;0.001 g d.w. m<sup>-2</sup> and 39.3 to 7.2 g d.w. m<sup>-2</sup>, respectively. Similar trends were observed in aggregation density. The general pattern of the disintegration of populations of these species was always similar. It was independent of the source macrophytes drew resources from or their susceptibility to environmental changes. Individuals began to be eliminated from the deep and central parts of the population area. The remainder of the populations, which persist in the shallowest, best-illuminated part of the area, are themselves endangered by disturbances caused by wavy motion. The only populations of submerged macrophytes which can survive in polyhumic lakes under such conditions are those which are resistant to disturbances common in the shallow littoral (<em>Lobelia dortmanna</em>, <em>Fontinalis antipyretica</em>).

Eemian environmental changes recorded in the north located lakes (N Poland and Germany) - subfossil Cladocera data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Niska ◽  
Anna Hrynowiecka ◽  
Joanna Mirosław-Grabowska ◽  
Andreas Borner ◽  
Robert Sokołowski
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Subfossil Cladocera ◽  
The North ◽  
Ne Germany ◽  
Eemian Interglacial ◽  
Nw Poland

&lt;p&gt;In the current study the result of subfossil Cladocera analysis of the lake sediments from tree sites: Hinterste M&amp;#252;hle (H-M) (NE Germany), Rzecino (NW Poland) and &amp;#321;&amp;#281;czyce (N Poland) of the Eemian Interglacial and the inferred environmental alterations are presented. The aim of the study was to reconstruct and compare the development of Eemian lakes located within the north of Poland and Germany as determined on the basis of the changes in subfossil Cladocera composition in the context of local conditions, climate change and natural evolutionary processes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The studied reservoirs, fully developed during the Eemian Interglacial, were formed at the end of Late Saalian (MIS 6) and Early Eemian. The Hinterste M&amp;#252;hle profile is located in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The site lies in the southeastern edge of the gravel pit, at about 48 m a.s.l. The Rzecino paleolake is located in the West Pomerania Lakeland (NW Poland), at an elevation of 104.5 m a.s.l. The &amp;#321;&amp;#281;czyce palaeolake is located in northern Poland, on the northern slope of the &amp;#321;eba river valley.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The subfossil Cladocera fauna from the H-M palaeolake is represented by 14 species belonging to three families. Three of them belong to a benthic group inhabiting mainly the bottom sediments, one to the open water zone, while the remaining species the dominant group occur among aquatic plants. Such a species composition marks a shallow water body or the littoral, macrophyte zone of a deeper lake. The Cladoceran fauna of deposits from the Rzecino paleolake are represented by 22 species that belong to four families. The majority of the remains consist of Chydoridae and Bosminidae. In the deposits, the ephippial eggs of the &lt;em&gt;Daphnia longispina&lt;/em&gt; group, &lt;em&gt;Ceriodaphnia&lt;/em&gt; spp., &lt;em&gt;Chydorus spp&lt;/em&gt;., and &lt;em&gt;Bosmina&lt;/em&gt; spp. are also identified. The subfossil cladoceran fauna of sediments in the &amp;#321;&amp;#281;czyce profile is represented by 18 species that belong to four families. Most of the remains belong to the family of Chydoridae (13). Such species composition points to a deeper reservoir with a developed littoral zone with macrophytes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Summing up, a similar pattern was observed in the research paleolakes related to the beginning of the existing of the lakes, their full development and ending time, different from the paleolakes found in the south, related to the location and more intense contact with cool air masses from Northern Europe.&lt;/p&gt;

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