Correlation and synchronisation of Lateglacial continental sequences in northern central Europe based on annually laminated lacustrine sediments

Abstract

The present study focusses on correlation and synchronisation of Weichselian Lateglacial varved lake sediments from western Germany (Meerfelder Maar, Eifel region), northern Germany (Hämelsee, Lower Saxony), central Poland (Lake Gości a ̨ ż) and eastern Poland (Lake Perespilno) by using varve chronology, tephrochronology, palynostratigraphy and stable isotopes. Comparison of the several independent time scales shows that biotic and abiotic parameters respond abruptly and quasi-synchronously, within the errors of the different chronologies, during the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition. Moreover, there is a consensus about the length of the Younger Dryas cold stage of 1100–1150 varve years. In the Allerød the prominent Laacher See tephra (12,880 varve years BP) can be used to fix floating varve chronologies. The relative duration of this biozone has been determined in Meerfelder Maar and Hämelsee at between 625 and 670 varve years. In the Meerfelder Maar a combination of continuous varve counting and biostratigraphy has been possible for the almost entire Lateglacial. The comparison between continental limnic sequences and Greenland ice-core records should be made on the basis of independent chronologies in both archives. It is more practicable to develop regional stratotypes on the continental regions instead of simply using ice cores as stratotypes for the Lateglacial for terrestrial European records. In this respect, annually laminated lacustrine sequences have a great potential.