Rapid shifts in environmental conditions inferred from geochemical analyses of Lake Stiucii lacustrine record, Transylvanian Lowlands, Romania

Abstract

Extensive proxy data and modeling suggest that the environmental response to climate forcing varied both spatially and temporarily even during the current interglacial (Davis et al., 2003; Davis and Brewer, 2009). The drivers of these short-term shifts in climate are of multiple origins, ranging from solar irradiance, periodic shifts in the regional expression of atmospheric circulation (e.g., NAO phases) to the episodic cold-water forcing of North Atlantic surface waters. Recently Magny et al. (2013) provided a comprehensive overview of regional climate change during the Holocene and its reflection in local hydrological data and water levels. Although these studies suggest a degree of regionalism in the climate signal, which might be expected, the most intriguing hypothesis is the so-called seesaw gradient, expressed as latitudinal and longitudinal differences in climate over relatively short distances (Davis et al., 2003; Davis and Brewer, 2009). In central-eastern Europe it is likely that the distribution of mountain ranges contributed even further to this climate fragmentation, therefore a regional scale perspective of the temporal development of climatic conditions and phase-relationships requires an increasing spatial resolution in proxy record (Dragusin et al., 2014)