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Climate-driven changes in water level: a decadal scale multi-proxy study recording the 8.2-ka event and ecosystem responses in Lake Sarup (Denmark)

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Abstract

A two-stage change in lake level during the 8.2-ka event was identified in Lake Sarup, Denmark (55°N), using a multiproxy approach on precise radiocarbon wiggle-matched annually laminated sediments deposited 8740–8060 cal. yr BP. Changes in δ13C and δ18O indicated closed lake hydrology driven by precipitation. The isotopic, sedimentary and plant macrofossil records suggested that the lake level started to decrease around 8400 cal. yr BP, the decrease accelerating during 8350–8260 before an abrupt increase during 8260–8210. This pattern shows that the climate anomaly started ~150 years before the onset of the 8.2-ka cooling event registered in Greenland ice cores, but was synchronous with hydrologic change in the North American Lake Agassiz drainage. The lake level decrease was accompanied by a higher accumulation rate of inorganic matter and lower accumulation rates of cladoceran subfossils and algal pigments, possibly due to increased turbidity and reduced nutrient input during this drier period. Pigment analysis also showed added importance of diatoms and cryptophytes during this climate anomaly, while cyanobacteria became more important when the water level rose. Moreover, Nymphaeaceae trichosclereids were abundant during the period of algal enrichment. Cladoceran taxa associated with floating leaved plants or benthic habitats responded in a complex way to changes in water level, but the cladoceran assemblages generally reflected deep lake conditions throughout the period. The lake did not return to its pre-8.2-ka event status during the period of analysis, but remained more productive for centuries after the climatic anomaly as judged from the pigment accumulation and assemblage composition. The change to more eutrophic conditions may have been triggered by erosion of marginal deposits. Together, these data confirm the chronology of hydrologic changes and suggest, for the first time, that lake levels exhibited both a decline and an increase in rapid succession in response to the 8.2-ka event in southern Scandinavia.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Sarup-team (Emily Bradshaw, Peer Hansen, Peter Rasmussen, Kirsten Rosendahl, David Ryves, Lucia Wick) for help with sediment coring and Teresa Buchaca Estany for inspiring discussions on isotopic and pigment aspects. Thanks also to Anne Mette Poulsen and Tinna Christensen for manuscript editing and figure layout. This project was funded by the research project “Holocene and interglacial varved sediments” (Danish Natural Science Research Council 21-02-0532), CLEAR (a Villum Kann Rasmussen Centre of Excellence project), CRES, CIRCE, the EU-P7 project REFRESH (No. 244121), NSERC Canada, and the International School of Aquatic Sciences (SOAS), Aarhus University, Denmark.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, 8600, Silkeborg, Denmark

    Rikke Bjerring & Erik Jeppesen

  2. 14CHRONO Centre for Climate, The Environment and Chronology, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK

    Jesper Olsen

  3. Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 2, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Bent V. Odgaard

  4. Department of Geology and Geography, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Bjørn Buchardt

  5. AMS 14C Dating Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Jan Heinemeier

  6. School of Geography, University of Nottingham, University Park, NG7 2RD, UK

    Suzanne McGowan

  7. Limnology Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada

    Peter R. Leavitt

  8. Moesgård Museum, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270, Højbjerg, Denmark

    Renée Enevold

  9. Greenland Climate Research Centre (GCRC), Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 570 3900, Kivioq 2, Nuuk, Greenland

    Erik Jeppesen

  10. Sino-Danish Educational and Research Centre, Beijing, China

    Erik Jeppesen

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  1. Rikke Bjerring
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Bjerring, R., Olsen, J., Jeppesen, E. et al. Climate-driven changes in water level: a decadal scale multi-proxy study recording the 8.2-ka event and ecosystem responses in Lake Sarup (Denmark). J Paleolimnol 49, 267–285 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9673-7

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