Klimaschwankungen
Currently significant research shows that lake sediment records, along with ice cores, tree rings, corals, etc., are one of the most sensitive records of past climate and environmental changes in a variety of settings and in different time sequences, the answer being appropriate to some of the issues regarding the Timing, characteristic trends of faster climate change and also traces of the recent contribution of human activities towards these changes.
Unfortunately, until now, the paleoclimatic data for Eastern Europe, and in particular for the Carpathians, which is known as an important hydroclimatic contact area, are scarce and the available reconstructions are, as a rule, focused on the paleoecological status of lake sediments or on the current ones anthropogenic pollution, since most of them are limited to specific time scales – late glacial and early / late Holocene.
This report describes the work done in September 2014 and August 2015. The scholarship was hosted at the German Research Center for Geosciences – GFZ in Potsdam, in Section 5.2 – Climate Dynamics and Landscape Development. Achim Brauer monitors.
He will investigate the reaction of the two special lacustrine segments (from Lake Ighiel – Trascau Mountains – Romania and the Haemelsee – Lower Saxony) to the abrupt climate changes over the Holocene (mid to late) and Lateglacial (Allerød / younger Dryas). Aims of this project: i) reconstruct the sedimentation dynamics by characterizing sediment and event layer; a) investigates the behavior of the lake system of recent pollution and human influences; b) investigates the response of lacustrine systems to abrupt climate changes in the interval ~ 13,300-12,500 years with particular emphasis on the characterization (sensitivity, features, trends) of rapid climate events; c) to test the protrusions and residues within the climate system by comparing the results of the Haemelsee with other records from Germany and Poland; d) to give the applicant the opportunity to learn and apply innovative methods in the field of modern paleolimnological research.
The data sets of both sediments follow a series of sedimentological and geochemical analyzes, which are shown in the following: sediment opening, visual sediment description, magnetic susceptibility, ?-XRF, micro-section analyzes, sediment-segment correlation and the construction of a holistic lithological profile, radiometric dating, the construction of the Warven chronology and the interpretation of the preliminary data.
These preliminary results demonstrate the potential of these selected datasets to reconstruct climate and environmental changes over a long period of time. The broad spectrum of physical and geochemical analyzes thus helps to reconstruct the past climatic dynamics in different perspectives and different space-time scales.