Preboreal climate oscillations in Europe: Wiggle-match dating and synthesis of Dutch high-resolution multi-proxy records
Introduction
Lacustrine sediments and peat deposits are valuable archives for the study of past climate change. In order to compare environmental and inferred climatic change during the Preboreal in The Netherlands, five terrestrial records (Lochem-Ampsen, Borchert, Zutphen, Kreekrak and Haelen) were selected for high-resolution multi-proxy analyses. Detailed botanical and zoological analyses (including pollen, spores, other microfossils and macroremains) and additional geochemical analyses (loss on ignition (LOI)), enables the comparison between different climate proxy records. The palynological record will mainly show the regional vegetation development, while other microfossils, macroremains and geochemical data will reflect the development of local environmental conditions. In order to record environmental response to short climatic oscillations, palaeoecological analyses were carried out with a high-resolution in time, i.e., vertical sample distance 1 cm, encompassing max. 20 years.
For linking the climatic signals from the different locations, calendar year chronologies are of crucial importance. Precise dating is essential for the study of leads and lags and the potential causes and effects within the climate system. However, as a consequence of atmospheric 14C variations in the past, early Holocene calibration of 14C dates is hampered by the presence of two large 14C plateaux, respectively, at ca 10,000–9900 and 9600–9500 BP. No precise calendar age chronology could therefore be obtained from records that covered the Lateglacial/Holocene transition and the Late Preboreal. In order to obtain a more accurate chronology, AMS 14C wiggle-match dating (WMD) of terrestrial macrofossils was applied to the five Preboreal sites. A WMD-based chronology enables the comparison between chronologies from various palaeoclimate archives, such as the palaeobotanical record (pollen, macroremains, and others), the dendrochronological record (Δ14C) and the Greenland ice-core records (δ18O, 10Be).
In this paper, we will discuss environmental and inferred climatic change as recorded in five Preboreal sites from The Netherlands. Furthermore, climate forcing factors and earlier suggested relations (see van der Plicht et al., 2004) between climate change in NW Europe and Greenland, solar variability (as evidenced by two cosmogenic isotope proxies 14C and 10Be) and fluctuations in the atmospheric CO2 concentration will be evaluated.
Section snippets
Study area
The vegetation development in The Netherlands during the Preboreal was strongly influenced by the geomorphology of the landscape (Hoek, 1997a, Hoek, 1997b). To investigate the environmental response of short climatic oscillations during the Preboreal, five sites were selected in different geomorphological landscape regions (Hoek, 1997b) (Fig. 1a and c). The Borchert and Lochem-Ampsen sites represent the eastern coversand area. The Zutphen record was collected at the transition between this
Botanical analysis
From the sediment cores, subsamples were taken at 1 cm intervals for high-resolution microfossil (pollen, spores, fungi, algae, etc.), and macroremain (seeds, fruits, wood, mosses, etc.), analyses and LOI analysis. Microfossil samples were collected using a small corer of defined volume (∼280 mm3) and prepared following Faegri and Iversen (1989) in addition with heavy liquid separation. Sieving was carried out using a 215 μm sieve. Lycopodium spores were added to calculate pollen concentrations.
Botanical results
Based on changes in the forest composition (AP) and herbaceous vegetation (NAP), the Preboreal biozone in The Netherlands, is subdivided into a Friesland Phase, a Rammelbeek Phase and the Late Preboreal. In the pollen diagrams of the five Dutch Preboreal sites, this subdivision of the Preboreal is clearly recognisable (Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6). The Lochem-Ampsen, Borchert, Kreekrak and Haelen diagrams all cover the period between the late Younger Dryas and early Boreal. However,
Wiggle-match dating
The WMD results of the five sites demonstrate that WMD during the investigated time-interval can give an accurate chronology, which is essential for the comparison with other high-resolution records, in particular, the Greenland ice-core record. Furthermore, it has been shown that if the position of the radiocarbon dates is well chosen and the biostratigraphy, LOI and lithology of the record are taken into consideration, WMD also can be successful with a small number of 14C dates (i.e.,
Acknowledgements
The investigations were supported by the Research Council for Earth and Life Science (ALW) with financial aid from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO, project no. 811.32.002). We would like to thank Annemarie Philip for the preparation of the microfossil samples and Nico de Wilde de Ligny is thanked for the LOI analyses. Maarten Blaauw and Simon Blockley are thanked for trying out statistical analysis (Bpeat, Bayesian analysis in Oxcal), advice and discussions on the
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Also at: Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.