Chironomid‐inferred Late‐glacial air temperatures at Whitrig Bog,Southeast Scotland     

Stephen J. Brooks  H. J. B. Birks 《第四纪科学杂志》2000,15(8):759-764

This paper presents the first chironomid‐inferred mean July air temperature reconstruction for the Late‐glacial in Britain. The reconstruction suggests that the thermal maximum occurred early in the interstadial, with temperatures reaching about 12°C. There was then a gradual downward trend to about 11°C, punctuated by four distinct cold oscillations of varying intensity. At the beginning of the Younger Dryas, mean July temperatures fell to about 7.5°C but gradually increased to about 9°C before a rapid rise at the onset of the Holocene. The chironomid‐inferred temperature curve agrees closely, both in general trends and in detail, with the GRIP ice‐core oxygen‐isotope curve. The reconstructed temperatures are 2–4°C lower than coleopteran‐inferred temperatures but are closer to those inferred from plant macrofossils and glacial equilibrium‐line altitudes during the Younger Dryas. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Rapid late-glacial atmospheric CO2 changes reconstructed from the stomatal density record of fossil leaves     

David J. Beerling  Hilary H. Birks  F. Ian Woodward 《第四纪科学杂志》1995,10(4):379-384

The Younger Dryas stadial (11 000-10 000 yr BP) was an abrupt return to a glacial climate during the termination of the last glaciation. We have reconstructed atmospheric CO₂ concentrations from a high-resolution sequence of fossil Salix herbacea leaves through this climatic oscillation from Kråkenes, western Norway, using the relationship between leaf stomatal density and atmospheric CO₂ concentration. High Allerød CO₂ values (median 273 ppmv) decreased rapidly during 130–200 ¹⁴C-years of the late Allerød to ca. 210 ppmv at the start of the Younger Dryas. They then increased steadily through the Younger Dryas, reaching typical interglacial values once more (ca. 275 ppmv) in the Holocene. The rapid late Allerød decrease in CO₂ concentration preceded the Younger Dryas temperature drop, possibly by several decades. This striking pattern of changes has not so far been recorded unambiguously in temporally coarse measurements of atmospheric CO₂ from ice cores. Our observed late-glacial CO₂ changes have implications for global modelling of the ocean-atmosphere-biosphere over the last glacial-interglacial transition.  相似文献   

WACALIB version 2.1 — a computer program to reconstruct environmental variables from fossil assemblages by weighted averaging     

J. M. Line  H. J. B. Birks 《Journal of Paleolimnology》1990,3(2):170-173

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Early Weichselian interstadial (MIS 5c) summer temperatures were higher than today in northern Fennoscandia     

Minna Väliranta  Hilary H. Birks  Karin Helmens  Stefan Engels  Mikko Piirainen 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2009,28(9-10):777-782

Only fragmentary biostratigraphical interstadial data exist from northern European high latitudes. The palaeoenvironmental interpretations for the early part of the Last Glaciation in northern Fennoscandia are mainly based on palynological evidence that suggests open birch woodland and a sub-arctic climate. Plant macrofossils from the Sokli sediment sequence in Finnish Lapland provide different evidence of interstadial climate conditions. The assemblage includes several species that currently have considerably more southern distribution ranges. This indicates that ca 100,000 years ago summer temperatures were warmer than today. The mean minimum July temperature may have been as high as 16 °C and the effective temperature sum may have been 1000 in day-degree units (d.d.), the modern values being 13 °C and 650 d.d., respectively. The contemporary astronomical forcing mechanisms may have resulted in a weaker north–south temperature gradient and a longer growing period, creating more favourable climate conditions compared with today.  相似文献   

Lateglacial vegetation development in Denmark – New evidence based on macrofossils and pollen from Slotseng,a small-scale site in southern Jutland     

Morten Fischer Mortensen  Hilary H. Birks  Charlie Christensen  Jørgen Holm  Nanna Noe-Nygaard  Bent Vad Odgaard  Jesper Olsen  Kaare Lund Rasmussen 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2011,30(19-20):2534-2550

This paper presents the first unambiguous terrestrial palaeoecological record for the late glacial “Bølling warming” in Denmark. Pollen and macrofossil stratigraphies from pre-Bølling to 10,800 cal yr BP are presented from a small kettle hole in Southwest Denmark, during which the lake basin developed from an immature stage after the deglaciation to complete infilling in the early Holocene. Results show that the recently deglaciated landscape bore a discontinuous vegetation of pioneer plants. After the Bølling warming, an open Dryas octopetala-Betula nana community developed with Helianthemum oelandicum. Subarctic species were dominant and local successions were probably delayed by relatively unstable and infertile soils. There is no indication of a climate cooling during the period corresponding to the Older Dryas, but the occurrence of several drought tolerant and steppe species indicates that the period was relatively dry. In the Allerød period the Dryas-B. nana vegetation was initially replaced by an open Salix and grass dominated vegetation and some 400 years later, the first tree birches were documented presumably occupying moist and sheltered soils while drier land remained open. In the Younger Dryas period trees disappeared and the vegetation became open again and dominated by subarctic species. Following climate warming at the Younger Dryas–Holocene transition a shrub community of Empetrum and Juniperus developed. After approximately 200 years it was replaced by birch forest. Overall, the late-glacial vegetation cover had a more open and patchy character than inferred from previous pollen studies as assessment of the vegetation succession based on macrofossil evidence is essential. The inferred general vegetation development corresponds well with results of other studies in the region. Canonical ordinations (RDA) indicate that vegetation changes at the landscape scale during the Lateglacial period were driven by changes in climate, soils and competition for light.  相似文献   

The pace of Holocene vegetation change – testing for synchronous developments     

Thomas Giesecke  K.D. Bennett  H. John B. Birks  Anne E. Bjune  Elisaveta Bozilova  Angelica Feurdean  Walter Finsinger  Cynthia Froyd  Petr Pokorný  Manfred Rösch  Heikki Seppä  Spasimir Tonkov  Verushka Valsecchi  Steffen Wolters 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2011,30(19-20):2805-2814

Mid to high latitude forest ecosystems have undergone several major compositional changes during the Holocene. The temporal and spatial patterns of these vegetation changes hold potential information to their causes and triggers. Here we test the hypothesis that the timing of vegetation change was synchronous on a sub-continental scale, which implies a common trigger or a step-like change in climate parameters. Pollen diagrams from selected European regions were statistically divided into assemblage zones and the temporal pattern of the zone boundaries analysed. The results show that the temporal pattern of vegetation change was significantly different from random. Times of change cluster around 8.2, 4.8, 3.7, and 1.2 ka, while times of higher than average stability were found around 2.1 and 5.1 ka. Compositional changes linked to the expansion of Corylus avellana and Alnus glutinosa centre around 10.6 and 9.5 ka, respectively. A climatic trigger initiating these changes may have occurred 0.5 to 1 ka earlier, respectively. The synchronous expansion of C. avellana and A. glutinosa exemplify that dispersal is not necessarily followed by population expansion. The partly synchronous, partly random expansion of A. glutinosa in adjacent European regions exemplifies that sudden synchronous population expansions are not species specific traits but vary regionally.  相似文献   

A new approach for reconstructing glacier variability based on lake sediments recording input from more than one glacier     

Kristian Vasskog  Øyvind Paasche  Atle Nesje  John F. Boyle  H.J.B. Birks 《Quaternary Research》2012,77(1):192-204

We explore the possibility of building a continuous glacier reconstruction by analyzing the integrated sedimentary response of a large (440 km²) glacierized catchment in western Norway, as recorded in the downstream lake Nerfloen (N61°56’, E6°52’). A multi-proxy numerical analysis demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish a glacier component in the ~ 8000-yr-long record, based on distinct changes in grain size, geochemistry, and magnetic composition. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reveals a strong common signal in the 15 investigated sedimentary parameters, with the first principal component explaining 77% of the total variability. This signal is interpreted to reflect glacier activity in the upstream catchment, an interpretation that is independently tested through a mineral magnetic provenance analysis of catchment samples. Minimum glacier input is indicated between 6700–5700 cal yr BP, probably reflecting a situation when most glaciers in the catchment had melted away, whereas the highest glacier activity is observed around 600 and 200 cal yr BP. During the local Neoglacial interval (~ 4200 cal yr BP until present), five individual periods of significantly reduced glacier extent are identified at ~ 3400, 3000–2700, 2100–2000, 1700–1500, and ~ 900 cal yr BP.  相似文献   

Effect of uneven sampling along an environmental gradient on transfer-function performance     

R. J. Telford  H. J. B. Birks 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2011,46(1):99-106

We investigate the effect that uneven sampling of the environmental gradient has on transfer-function performance using simulated community data. We find that cross-validated estimates of the root mean squared error of prediction can be strongly biased if the observations are very unevenly distributed along the environmental gradient. This biased occurs because species optima are more precisely known (and more analogues are available) in the part of the gradient with most observations, hence estimates are most precise here, and compensate for the less precise estimates in the less well sampled parts of the gradient. We find that weighted averaging and the modern analogue technique are more sensitive to this problem than maximum likelihood, and suggest a way to remove the bias via a segment-wise RMSEP procedure.  相似文献   

Oribatid mite assemblages across the tree-line in western Norway and their representation in lake sediments     

Arguitxu de la Riva-Caballero  H. John B. Birks  Anne E. Bjune  Hilary H. Birks  Torstein Solh?y 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2010,44(1):361-374

Little is known about the relationships between fossil oribatid mite assemblages in lake and mire sediments and the composition, abundance, and richness of their living communities. Because oribatid mites are a relatively new area of palaeolimnological study, there is a great lack of knowledge about the taphonomic processes that might affect fossil mite assemblages. The DOORMAT (Direct Observation Of Recent Macrofossils Across Tree-line) project was designed to study the transport and deposition of oribatid mites and plant remains in the tree-line area of western Norway. The present study also compares modern oribatid assemblages with fossil oribatid assemblages in a Holocene lake-sediment sequence from the nearby Trettetj?rn, and considers the optimal location for studying fossil oribatid mites within a lake basin. Seven novel terrestrial traps (50 × 80 cm Astroturf doormats) were placed at major vegetational transitions along an altitudinal transect crossing the tree-line ecotone from 633 to 1,120 m a.s.l. at Upsete, west Norway. Three sediment traps were placed in Trettetj?rn (810 m a.sl.) at the inlet, the middle, and near the outlet. In each terrestrial trap, the oribatid assemblage was found to be characteristic of the surrounding habitat. The lake-trap analyses showed that aquatic or moist-habitat species had the highest chance of being incorporated into the lake sediments; the number of terrestrial species decreased considerably from both outlet and inlet traps to the central trap in the deepest water. The area adjacent to the inlet of Trettetj?rn would therefore be the optimal location for a sediment core for oribatid analysis. However, this conclusion is not supported when the modern trap results are compared with the Trettetj?rn sequence from the lake centre.  相似文献   

Testing intra-site transfer functions: an example using chironomids and water depth   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Gaute Velle  Richard J. Telford  Oliver Heiri  Joshua Kurek  H. John B. Birks 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2012,48(3):545-558

Most calibration data sets used to infer past environmental conditions from biological proxies are derived from many sites. An alternative strategy is to derive the calibration data set from within a single site. Transfer functions derived from such intra-site calibration data sets are usually applied to fossil assemblages from the focal lake, but a recent development has been to apply these transfer functions to other sites. Transfer functions derived from intra-site calibration data sets can have impressive cross-validation performance, but that gives little indication of their performance when applied to other sites. Here, we develop transfer functions for lake depth from intra-lake chironomid calibration data sets in Norway and Alaska and test the resulting models by cross-validation and against known depth in external lakes. Lake depth is a statistically significant predictor of chironomid assemblages at all these lakes, and most intra-lake transfer functions perform reasonably well under cross-validation, but their performance against external data is erratic. Downcore reconstructions from transfer functions developed on different lakes are dissimilar. Ignoring the poorly performing transfer functions, only 3 of 14 downcore reconstructions are statistically significant. Few assemblages downcore had good modern analogues in the calibration data set, even when the core was from the same lake as the calibration data set. We conclude that intra-site calibration data sets can find site-specific rather than general relationships between species and the environment and thus should be applied with care and to external sites only after careful and critical validation.  相似文献