The record of climatic change in the geological archives of shallow marine, coastal, and adjacent lowland areas of Northern Germany

Abstract

The record of climatic change in shallow marine, coastal, and adjacent lowland areas has been investigated by three different approaches. A mass balance study focused on the interaction between sea-level rise and Holocene sediment accumulation in the coastal lowland area between the Ems and Weser rivers on the German North Sea coast. This region, which comprises various sedimentary environments, such as barrier islands, sheltered and open tidal flats, bay flats, and estuaries, is highly suitable for such quantitative studies, which can be used to create a model for general mass transport and accumulation processes connected with transgressions over coastal lowlands.An integrated geochemical and microfacies study was made to assess the response of shallow marine, intertidal, and limnic-semiterrestrial environments to the climate-controlled Holocene sea-level rise. The factors controlling the development of various palaeoenvironments were estimated from the distribution of biomarkers, major and trace elements, diatoms, foraminifera and sedimentary structures observed at high resolution in core sections. These data complement those of conventional geological, lithostratigraphical, archaeological and geobotanical investigations.The extensive raised bogs which occur in the Pleistocene hinterland, adjacent to the coastal zone, provided an excellent opportunity to examine peat formation in response to climatic changes in the past. On the basis of a large number of 14C-age determinations special attention was paid to the onset and regional expansion of raised bogs in this region and to the question of whether or not the formation of raised bog peat started synchronously in one or in a series of different phases.