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Reconstruction of Holocene lake-level changes in Lake Kalvsjön, southern Sweden, with a contribution to the local palaeohydrology at the Elm Decline

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Abstract

Past lake-level changes in Lake Kalvsjön are reconstructed and compared with the changes recorded in nearby Lake Bysjön. The two major lowerings of lake level noted in Lake Bysjön are also recorded in Lake Kalvsjön, the older lowering taking place between ca. 9500–9200 B.P. and the younger occurring between ca. 6500–3000 B.P. A distinct decrease in the frequency ofUlmus, corresponding to the classical Elm Decline, is recorded in the pollen diagram from Lake Kalvsjön. The high rapidity of the decline strongly suggests that a pathogenic attack was primarily responsible. However, both human interference and palaeohydrological change may have interacted by disturbing the surrounding forests and increasing the susceptibility of elm to pathogenic attack. In the Lake Kalvsjön area, the disturbance resulting from palaeohydrological change is assumed to have been more influential in pre-disposing the forest to an outbreak of elm disease than any human interference.

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Digerfeldt, G. Reconstruction of Holocene lake-level changes in Lake Kalvsjön, southern Sweden, with a contribution to the local palaeohydrology at the Elm Decline. Veget Hist Archaebot 6, 9–14 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01145881

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