Early Last Interglacial palaeoenvironments in the western Baltic Sea: benthic foraminiferal stable isotopes and diatom-based sea-surface salinity

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A multiproxy study of Eemian Stage sediments in two core records, Licze and Obrzynowo, in the Gulf of Gdańsk area of northern Poland, shows that the brackish‐marine interglacial conditions were determined partly by regional environmental changes and partly by local changes of the river outflow from the Vistula into the southern Baltic Sea. Correlation of the sediments with the Eemian is based on pollen analysis of the Obrzynowo record, showing the presence of regional pollen zones (RPAZ) E2–E6, combined with previously published pollen analyses from Licze (RPAZ E1–E7). A floating chronology is established on the basis of correlation with the annually laminated Bispingen sequence. Diatoms, foraminifera and ostracods are used as marine environmental proxies at both sites. An indication of marine conditions as early as pollen zone E1 or E2 at Licze and close to the E2–E3 boundary at Obrzynowo reflects the rapid relative sea‐level rise in the area, which proceeded through ∼3000 years. A major salinity increase c. 1100 years after the beginning of the Eemian (early pollen zone E4) at both sites may be related to the opening of the Danish Straits. The Obrzynowo site became isolated from the sea at c. 3500 years (early pollen zone E5), whereas marine conditions continued at Licze until c. 7000 years, that is, throughout pollen zone E5. Gradually shallower water after c. 5000 years presumably resulted from progradation of the rivers combined with isostatic rebound of the area before final isolation from the sea at c. 7000 years.

Section: Discussion Of the Correlation And Palaeoenvironmentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Environmental reconstructions of Eemian Stage interglacial marine records in the Lower Vistula area, southern Baltic Sea

Knudsen

Jiang

Gibbard

et al. 2011

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“…This was confirmed by a hydrographical reconstruction based on foraminiferal stable isotopes and diatoms by Knudsen et al . () for the Ristinge section. Furthermore, Kristensen et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi‐proxy palaeoenvironmental and geochronological reconstruction of the Saalian‐Eemian‐Weichselian succession at Klein Klütz Höved, NE Germany

Kenzler

Rother

Hüneke

et al. 2017

Here we present a multi-proxy investigation of the Klein Kl€ utz H€ oved (KKH) coastal cliff section in northeastern Germany, involving lithofacies analysis, micromorphology, micropalaeontology, palynology and luminescence dating of quartz and feldspar. We subdivide the local stratigraphy into three depositional phases. (i) Following a Saalian advance (MIS 6) of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet, the penultimate deglaciation (Termination II) at the site occurred between c. 139 and 134 ka, leading to the establishment of abraided river system and lacustrine basins under arctic-subarctic climate conditions. (ii) In the initial phase of the Eemian interglacial lacustrine deposits were formed, containing warm-water ostracods and a pollen spectrum indicating gradual expansion of woodlands eventually containing thermophile deciduous forest elements. A correlation of the local pollen assemblages with Eemian reference records from central Europe suggests that fewer than 750 years of the last interglacial period are preserved at KKH. The occurrence of brackish ostracods dates the onset of the Eemian marine transgression at the section at c. 300-750 years after the beginning of the last interglacial period. (iii) Directly above the Eemian record a~10-mthick sedimentary succession of MIS 2 age was deposited, implying a significant hiatus of c. 90 ka encompassing the time from middle and upper MIS 5e to late MIS 3. During the Late Weichselian, KKH featured a depositional shift from (glacio-)lacustrine to subglacial to recessional terminoglacial facies, with the first documented Weichselian ice advance post-dating 20AE2 ka. Overall, the KKH section represents an exceptional sedimentary archive for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, covering the period from the Saalian glaciation and subsequent Termination II to the early Eemian and Late Weichselian. The results refine the existing palaeogeographical and geochronological models of the late Quaternary history in the southwestern Baltic Sea area and allow correlations with other reference records in a wider area.

“…pollen zonation of Linke & Hallik 1993;Fig. A comparative, rather early regression is also common for Eemian and Holocene interglacial records in coastal areas of the region (Penney 1987b;Konradi et al 2005;Knudsen et al 2011). A pollen stratigraphy is not available from the Holsteinian at Kås Hoved, but it may be assumed that the deposits only represent part of the Holsteinian interglacial and that the area was lifted above sea level relatively early, as in the southern part of Denmark and northern Germany.…”

Section: Assemblages Sediments and Palaeogeographymentioning

confidence: 66%

Elsterian‐Holsteinian deposits atKåsHoved, northernDenmark: sediments, foraminifera, ostracods, and stable isotopes

Knudsen

Ditlefsen

Penney

et al. 2013

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The coastal cliff section at Kås Hoved in northern Denmark represents one of the largest exposures of marine interglacial deposits in Europe. High-resolution analyses of sediments, foraminifera, ostracods, and stable isotopes (oxygen and carbon) in glacial-interglacial marine sediments from this section, as well as from two adjacent boreholes, are the basis for an interpretation of marine environmental and climatic change through the Late Elsterian-Holsteinian glacial-interglacial cycle. The overlying glacial deposits show two ice advances during the Saalian and Weichselian glaciations. The assemblages in the initial glacier-proximal part of the marine Late Elsterian succession reveal fluctuations in the inflow of sediment-loaded meltwater to the area. This is followed by faunal indication of glacier-distal, open marine conditions, coinciding with a gradual climatic change from arctic to subarctic environments. Continuous marine sedimentation during the glacial-interglacial transition is presumably a result of a large-scale isostatic subsidence caused by the preceding extended Elsterian glaciation. The similarity of the climatic signature of the interglacial Holsteinian and Holocene assemblages in this region indicates that the Atlantic Ocean circulation was similar during these two interglacials, whereas Eemian interglacial assemblages indicate a comparatively high water temperature associated with an enhanced North Atlantic Current. The foraminiferal zones are correlated with other Elsterian-Holsteinian sites in Denmark, as well as those in the type area for the Holsteinian interglacial in northern Germany and the southern North Sea. Correlation of the NW European Holsteinian succession with the marine isotope stages MIS 7, 9 or 11 is still unresolved. In this study, we describe the stratigraphy of the Quaternary deposits in part of the 700-m-long coastal section at Kås Hoved, which represents one of the bs_bs_banner