<p>In the winter of 2017 three undisturbed sediment cores were retrieved from the Szemes Basin of Lake Balaton. The sediments were sampled for AMS <sup>14</sup>C dating and we used 8 of the radiocarbon dates for age-depth modelling. Based on this, the investigated sediment sequence covers the entire Holocene and Late Glacial period and the bottom of the sediment is ca. ~16,000 cal yr BP old. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) was used to reconstruct rapid changes in the element content of the lake sediment. The evaluation of the measured results makes it possible to reconstruct the changes in the discharge environment and lake water level that can be related to the climate and human impact. Based on the data, two major evaporation events can be observed at 5500 BP and 8100 BP. These results were also verified by oxygen isotope studies. To reconstruct the energy of the deposition environment, particle size analysis was performed. The obtained results confirmed that river sediments are common at the bottom of Lake Balaton sediments, while biogenic carbonate dominates in the upper, Holocene part of the sediment core. To identify each mineral phase in the sediment, X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies were used to determine the ratio of calcite to Mg-calcite. Based on our XRF measurements, focusing primarily on quantitative changes in magnesium and calcium, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies were performed, mainly in the Mg enrichment layer around 8100 BP. The precipitation of biogenic carbonate in Lake Balaton is still taking place, mainly in the form of calcite and Mg-calcite. Their relative proportions strongly depend on the Mg saturation of the water and the substrates on which they are separated. From our results we can draw conclusions about the possible previous deeper phases of the lake and the evaporation conditions of the water. The data obtained from transmission electron microscopy shows a good agreement with the results of the XRF measurement, the proportion of Mg-calcite increases around 8100 BP that likely indicate drier climatic conditions connectable to the well know 8.2 ka cal BP climatic reversal.</p>

<p>Late Glacial and Early Holocene summer temperatures were reconstructed based on fossil chironomid assemblages at Lake Latorica (Lacul Iezerul Latoritei; Pareng Mountains, 1530 m a.s.l.) with a joint Norwegian – Swiss transfer function, providing an important addition to the late glacial quantitative climate reconstructions from eastern-central Europe. The reconstructed pattern of the Late Glacial faunal and chironomid-inferred temperature changes in Lake Latorica shows some differences from the NGRIP δ<sup>18</sup>O record and other European chironomid-based reconstructions; however, it is consistent with the chironomid results of Lake Brazi from the neighbouring Retyezat Mountains (1740 m a.s.l.). Our reconstruction shows that the summer air temperature at Lake Latorica increased by ~ 3°C at the Oldest Dryas/Bølling transition (GS-2/GI-1) and reached 8.1-10.8°C during the Late Glacial interstadial. The Younger Dryas (GS-1) climate reversal in the chironomid-based temperature reconstruction is shown by only a weak decrease (~1°C), while slow temperature increase (9.7–11°C) is observed in the second half of the period. At the Holocene transition temperature increase of nearly 2°C was observed in the reconstruction. Before the Preboreal Oscillation (PO) the mean summer air temperature in the Early Holocene was 12.5°C. During PO the temperature reconstruction shows a decrease of 1.8°C. This cold event coincides with cooling in the Greenland ice core records and other European temperature reconstructions. After the Preboral oscillation the summer air temperatures increase to ~12.8°C in the Early Holocene.</p>

<p>Over the last 10 years several alpine lakes were studied from the Southern Carpathian Mountains (SCM) using paleoecological, geochemical and stable isotope techniques. The aim of these studies were to obtain quantitative climate reconstructions for the alpine region for the Late Glacial (LG) and Holocene, reconstruct tree and timberline changes and examine how rapid climate change events manifested in this region, what are the regions characteristics. Absolute chronologies were also supported here for the first time with tephra chronology in the Early Holocene. In addition, environmental DNA studies were used to explore what molecular techniques can add to a more exact and often species level reconstruction of past floristic compositions. This talk will summarize these researches and use multivariate statistics to examine leads and lags in ecosystem response at multiple sites (Retezat, Pareng, Fogaras, Ciomadul Mts). These analyses first of all demonstrate that the amplitude of warming was attenuated in the SCM at the GS-2/GI-1 transition relative to NW Europe (~2,8-3 <sup>o</sup>C), summer temperatures increased abruptly already at 16.2 ka cal BP in direct response to the weakening polar circulation and the tripartite GS-1 had weak summer temperature decrease (<1 <sup>o</sup>C), but winter cooling was strong. Regarding the order of ecosystem changes, lead and lag analysis revealed <50 yr lag in vegetation response, 0-100 lag in aquatic floristic response and ~100-150 yr lag in aquatic faunal response to external forcing. Environmental DNA studies showed that despite the method is capable to better capture grass (Poaceae) floristic diversity and replicates woody specie composition obtained by plant macrofossil data, it fails to provide higher resolution for the herbaceous flora around the studied lakes that feature was explained partly by the incompleteness of reference DNA sequences for the trnL region and the DNA preservation characteristics of alpine lakes. Using these pioneer studies, several promising research directions were identified for this region: modelling of projected tree and timberline changes in combination with reconstructed data, using eDNA techniques to decipher alpine farming histories in the mountains and its impact on late Holocene tree and timberline change, reconstruction the accelerating speed of ecosystem change over the last 100 yr. in alpine lakes and calling attention for the irreversibility of these changes, demonstrating tipping points. These will be discussed in the presentation.</p>

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