ALBERT

Description: Knowledge about the timing, amplitude and spatial gradients of Holocene environmental variability in the circum-Baltic region is key to understanding its responses to ongoing climate change. Based on a multi-dating and proxy approach, we reconstruct changes in productivity using total organic carbon (TOC) contents in sediments of Lake Kälksjön (KKJ) from west–central Sweden spanning the last 9612 (+255 − 114) years. An exception is the period from 1878 CE until today, in which sedimentation was dominated by anthropogenic lake level lowering and land use. In-lake productivity was higher during periods of warmer winters with shortened ice cover and prolonged growing seasons. A multi-millennial increase in productivity throughout the last ∼ 9600 years is associated with progressively warmer winters in northwestern Europe, likely triggered by the coinciding increase in Northern Hemisphere winter insolation. Decadal to centennial periods of higher productivity in KKJ tend to correspond to warmer winters during a more positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) polarity, as reconstructed for the last 8000 years. In consequence, we assume our decadal to centennial productivity record from KKJ sediments for the complete ∼ 9600 years to provide a qualitative record of NAO polarity. A shift towards higher productivity variability at ∼ 5450 cal a BP is hypothesized to reect a reinforcement of NAO-like atmospheric circulation variability, possibly driven by more vigorous changes in North Atlantic deep-water formation.

Description: Annual and decadal-scale hydroclimatic variability describes key characteristics that are embedded into climate in situ and is of prime importance in subtropical regions. The study of hydroclimatic variability is therefore crucial to understand its manifestation and implications for climate derivatives such as hydrological phenomena and water availability. However, the study of this variability from modern records is limited due to their relatively short span, whereas model simulations relying on modern dynamics could misrepresent some of its aspects. Here we study annual to decadal hydroclimatic variability in the Levant using two sedimentary sections covering ∼ 700 years each, from the depocenter of the Dead Sea, which has been continuously recording environmental conditions since the Pleistocene. We focus on two series of annually deposited laminated intervals (i.e., varves) that represent two episodes of opposing mean climates, deposited during MIS2 lake-level rise and fall at ∼ 27 and 18 ka, respectively. These two series comprise alternations of authigenic aragonite that precipitated during summer and flood-borne detrital laminae deposited by winter floods. Within this record, aragonite laminae form a proxy of annual inflow and the extent of epilimnion dilution, whereas detrital laminae are comprised of sub-laminae deposited by individual flooding events. The two series depict distinct characteristics with increased mean and variance of annual inflow and flood frequency during “wetter”, with respect to the relatively “dryer”, conditions, reflected by opposite lake-level changes. In addition, decades of intense flood frequency (clusters) are identified, reflecting the in situ impact of shifting centennial-scale climate regimes, which are particularly pronounced during wetter conditions. The combined application of multiple time series analyses suggests that the studied episodes are characterized by weak and non-significant cyclical components of sub-decadal frequencies. The interpretation of these observations using modern synoptic-scale hydroclimatology suggests that Pleistocene climate changes resulted in shifts in the dominance of the key synoptic systems that govern rainfall, annual inflow and flood frequency in the eastern Mediterranean Sea over centennial timescales.

Description: The varved sediment of Lake Gościąż (Central Poland) is one of the most detailed and complete climate archives of the Late Glacial and the Holocene in Central Europe. Here, we present microfacies analyses in combination with μXRF core scanning and a detailed varve chronology of a new and continuous GOS18 sediment record. This record presents six lithozones that mark the most prominent depositional and geochemical changes during the Holocene and Late Glacial. Varve boundaries and five main varve microfacies types were distinguished under petrographic microscope. Analysis provides detailed insights into depositional processes and its changes since the Late Glacial. Microfacies components were used to interpret processes leading to varve formation. A new and independent chronology is obtained by triple varve counting on petrographic thin sections that is complemented by 137Cs measurements and 14C AMS dating of terrestrial plant remains. The age-depth model consists of three parts: (1) the upper part (0–520 cm) that is primarily based on varve counting, (2) the middle part (520–758 cm) obtained through age-depth modelling and (3) the lower part (758–1897 cm) developed by varve counting. The bottom of the composite profile coincides with the onset of lacustrine sedimentation in the late Allerød at 12,834 +134/-233 varve yr BP. The largest shift in geochemistry, expressed by log(Ca/Ti) and log(Si/Ti) ratios show a rapid increase of calcite precipitation and primary productivity at 7940 +112/-168 varve yr BP. Possible triggers for this include local changes in hydrology as the formation of “Na Jazach” system due to the Ruda River development and fluctuations of lake water level.

Description: The sediment profile from Lake Gościąż in central Poland comprises a continuous, seasonally resolved and exceptionally well‐preserved archive of the Younger Dryas (YD) climate variation. This provides a unique opportunity for detailed investigation of lake system responses during periods of rapid climate cooling (YD onset) and warming (YD termination). The new varve record of Lake Gościąż presented here spans 1662 years from the late Allerød (AL) to the early Preboreal (PB). Microscopic varve counting provides an independent chronology with a YD duration of 1149+14/–22 years, which confirms previous results of 1140±40 years. We link stable oxygen isotopes and chironomid‐based air temperature reconstructions with the response of various geochemical and varve microfacies proxies especially focusing on the onset and termination of the YD. Cooling at the YD onset lasted ~180 years, which is about a century longer than the terminal warming that was completed in ~70 years. During the AL/YD transition, environmental proxy data lagged the onset of cooling by ~90 years and revealed an increase of lake productivity and internal lake re‐suspension as well as slightly higher detrital sediment input. In contrast, rapid warming and environmental changes during the YD/PB transition occurred simultaneously. However, initial changes such as declining diatom deposition and detrital input occurred already a few centuries before the rapid warming at the YD/PB transition. These environmental changes likely reflect a gradual increase in summer air temperatures already during the YD. Our data indicate complex and differing environmental responses to the major climate changes related to the YD, which involve different proxy sensitivities and threshold processes.

Description: Robust reconstruction of past climate and environmental change based on proxy data obtained from natural archives requires an in-depth understanding of the processes and mechanisms that form and determine these proxies. Here we present comprehensive long-term monitoring projects for seasonally laminated (varved) lake sediments and tree rings in the northern German lowlands. The two monitoring sites are located in the nature park Nossentiner/Schwinzer Heide (Tiefer See) and in the Müritz National Park (tree rings) and are an integral part of the Helmholtz TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories (TERENO) infrastructure initiative. Both sites are located in the close vicinity of moraine deposits of the main ice advance of the Pomeranian phase of the Weichselian glaciation. This field guide provides an introduction to the local morphologies and landscapes as well as details of the monitoring concepts and some selected results.

Description: The lake level of the Dead Sea, Southern Levant, has fluctuated with an amplitude of ∼250 m in response to the last glacial-interglacial cycle. This exceptional sensitivity to climate change, and the availability of long sedimentary archives, make the Dead Sea a benchmark for long quantitative paleohydrological reconstructions. However, discontinuities and chronological uncertainties in the marginal sedimentary record have hampered the reconstruction of Dead Sea lake levels beyond the Last Glacial (70–14 ka before present, BP). Here, we apply a two-pronged methodology. First, we measure the lake water density along ICDP deep core 5017-1-A using a new method, Brillouin spectroscopy on two-phase halite fluid inclusions; we combine it with the composition of pore water and the thickness of halite layers in the core to reconstruct lake level, volume, mass balance and subsidence rate. Second, we tune the chronology of lake levels from outcrops by matching it to the chronology of the deep core. The resulting lake level reconstruction, spanning 237–70 ka BP, is validated by the excellent agreement between outcrop- and mass balance-based methodologies. It shows a long-term recession of the lake, its level decreasing from one interglacial to the other, down to a Holocene record low. There are two reasons for this lake level fall. First, with an average rate of 2.65 ± 0.15 m/ka, subsidence has outpaced sedimentation at least over the last ∼130 ka. Second, by reducing the solute inventory of the lake, massive halite precipitation events such as that of 131–116 ka BP have durably increased surface water activity and evaporation, and thus lowered the lake level, up to today. Conversely, our analysis suggests that, during 191–11 ka BP, the dissolution of Mount Sedom salt diapir and freshwater inflows provided to the lake about three times the mass of solute NaCl contained in the modern Dead Sea (in 1985). This massive solute influx, occurring mainly during glacial highstands, strongly contributed to lowering surface water activity and evaporation and, therefore, to increasing the lake volume. Our results suggest that Dead Sea lake levels are more accurately interpreted in terms of climatic change if surface water activity is taken into account.

Description: In-depth understanding of the reorganization of the hydrological cycle in response to global climate change is crucial in highly sensitive regions like the eastern Mediterranean, where water availability is a major factor for socioeconomic and political development. The sediments of Lake Lisan provide a unique record of hydroclimatic change during the last glacial to Holocene transition (ca. 24–11 ka) with its tremendous water level drop of ~ 240 m that finally led to its transition into the present hypersaline water body—the Dead Sea. Here we utilize high-resolution sedimentological analyses from the marginal terraces and deep lake to reconstruct an unprecedented seasonal record of the last millennia of Lake Lisan. Aragonite varve formation in intercalated intervals of our record demonstrates that a stepwise long-term lake level decline was interrupted by almost one millennium of rising or stable water level. Even periods of pronounced water level drops indicated by gypsum deposition were interrupted by decades of positive water budgets. Our results thus highlight that even during major climate change at the end of the last glacial, decadal to millennial periods of relatively stable or positive moisture supply occurred which could have been an important premise for human sedentism.

Description: This dataset provides annually resolved microfacies data from ICDP core 5017-1-A, retrieved from the deep northern Dead Sea basin in 2010/11, for the last glacial-interglacial transition (ca. 14-13 ka BP). Sediments of the Lisan Formation were investigated between ~94.7 and 91.8 m sediment depth below lake floor (lithozone C2) by continuous thin section microscopy. Thin sections were prepared following the standard procedure by Brauer and Casanova (2001) that was adjusted for salty sediments. Thin section analyses were performed on overlapping large-scale thin sections using a Zeiss Axiolab pol microscope at magnifications of 50-400x. Microfacies analyses included varve counting and measurements of varve and sublayer thickness. The amount of varves in erosional gaps was interpolated and the position of mass flow deposits (MFD) is marked.

Description: These datasets provide sedimentological data partly at annual resolution and an age model for the lateglacial part of (1) the ICDP sediment core 5017-1-A retrieved from the deep northern Dead Sea basin in 2010/11, and (2) for the Masada outcrop located at the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea sampled in 2018. The here investigated two sediment sections cover the last glacial-interglacial transition (ca. 17-11.5 ka BP) in the hydroclimatically sensitive Levant, when the water level of Lake Lisan – the precursor of the Dead Sea – dropped dramatically from its glacial high-stand to the Holocene low levels. Here, we analyze the interval between the last two gypsum units – the Upper Gypsum Unit (UGU) and the Additional Gypsum Unit (AGU) – which were also used to correlate the two sites. In the ICDP core this section is located between ~101 and 88.5 m sediment depth below lake floor and at Masada it encompasses the uppermost ~3.8 m sediments of the Lisan Formation, which form the terminal deposit at this site. Due to the lake level decline, the complete transition into the Holocene is only recorded in the ICDP core, while sedimentation at Masada terminates earlier. The microfacies was investigated by continuous thin section microscopy, while additional macroscopic information is provided from over- and underlying sediment sections. A revised chronology using age modelling in OxCal (Ramsey 2008; Ramsey 2009; Ramsey and Lee 2013) was developed for the ICDP core and a floating varve chronology was constructed at Masada. Using these new microfacies data from marginal (Masada) and deep-water (ICDP core) sediments, the hydroclimatic variability during the final stage of Lake Lisan can be reconstructed, which could provide important insights into the development of human sedentism in the region at this time.