Search results for " paleontology"
showing 10 items of 893 documents
The history and impacts of farming activities in south Greenland: an insight from lake deposits.
2013
International audience; Agriculture in southern Greenland has a two-phase history: with the Norse, who first settled and farmed the region between 985ad and circa 1450ad, and with the recent reintroduction of sheep farming (1920ad to the present). The agricultural sector in Greenland is expected to grow over the next century as anticipated climate warming extends the length of the growing season and increases productivity. This article presents a synthesis of results from a well-dated 1500-year lake sediment record from Lake Igaliku, south Greenland (61°00′N, 45°26′W, 15m asl) that demonstrates the relative impacts of modern and Norse agricultural activities. Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs…
Response of the aquatic plants and mollusc communities in Lake Kojle (central Europe) to climatic changes between 250 BCE and 1550 CE
2018
Abstract Sediments of Lake Kojle, located in the transition zone between the nemoral and boreal biogeographic zones in NE Poland, were analysed to verify the response of the aquatic ecosystem to major environmental changes. High-resolution plant macrofossil, mollusc and pollen data were derived from two replicate parallel cores and revealed several shifts in the biota composition within the littoral zone between 250 BCE and 1550 CE. The reaction of the aquatic ecosystem to temperature changes was found to be minor, which is ascribed to the mitigating influence of water and the wide ecological tolerance of most of the taxa. Najas marina, considered as an indicator of warmer conditions, was t…
Palaeoecological implications of Neanderthal occupation at Unit Xb of El Salt (Alcoi, eastern Spain) during MIS 3 using small mammals proxy
2018
Nearly 250 small mammal remains from Unit Xb of El Salt Middle Palaeolithic site have been studied in order to reconstruct the palaeoecological conditions during a phase of Neanderthal occupation in this locality at 52.3 ± 4.6 ka. A total of 7rodents (Microtus arvalis, M. agrestis, M. (Terricola) duodecimcostatus, Microtus (Iberomys) cabrerae, Arvicola sapidus, Eliomys quercinus and Apodemus sylvaticus), 4 insectivores (Erinaceus cf. europaeus, Crocidura sp., Sorex sp. and Talpidae indet.) and 1 lagomorph (Oryctolagus cf. cuniculus) have been identified. Applying the Mutual Ecogeographic Range and Habitat Weighting methods, Unit Xb may correspond to a relatively cold (−3.3 °C in comparison …
New research in the methods and applications of sclerochronology
2017
Abstract Because the instrumental record is short and does not extend to periods before the initiation of significant human impacts, full understanding of the processes and dynamics involved in the modern phase of very rapid global change depends on the interpretation of high resolution and precisely dated proxy archives. The identification of very long-lived species of bivalve mollusc in the extratropical marine environment has been a crucial recent advance. These molluscs form patterns of periodic (usually annual) banding in their shells that are synchronous within populations, so that long (centennial and millennial) stacked chronologies can be built by crossdating from live collected to…
An intractable climate archive — Sclerochronological and shell oxygen isotope analyses of the Pacific geoduck, Panopea abrupta (bivalve mollusk) from…
2008
Abstract Annual growth increment patterns of cardinal teeth (CT) of Panopea abrupta (Conrad) can reportedly provide information about past climate variations. However, little is known about the intra-annual timing and rate of shell growth necessary to interpret such records. In addition, it remains unclear whether actual temperatures can be reliably inferred from δ18O values of geoduck {goo'e-duk} shells. This study compared high-resolution environmental records (hourly to monthly resolved temperature, bi-weekly to monthly δ18Owater and salinity data) with temperatures reconstructed from oxygen isotope values of the outer shell layer (Tδ18OOSL) and cardinal tooth portions (Tδ18OCT) of diffe…
Carbon accumulation rate in a raised bog in Latvia, NE Europe, in relation to climate warming
2018
The carbon accumulation rate (CAR) over the last 180 years was estimated by measuring carbon concentrations in 1-cm layers in a fine-resolution dated and analysed peat sequence in Teiči Bog, Latvia, NE Europe. We used the Granger causality test to examine the temporal (lagged) relationships between the CAR and the historical climate variables. Our results showed that the average CAR was 192 g C m–2 yr–1 during the last 180 years and 169 g C m–2 yr–1 when excluding the acrotelm where decomposition and the stock of carbon are still not in the balance. The Granger causality test showed significant positive temporal associations between the temperature and the CAR, indicating that the temperatu…
The response of a shallow lake and its catchment to Late Glacial climate changes — A case study from eastern Poland
2015
In this study we investigate how climate fluctuation in the Late Glacial period influenced the development of a lake and its catchment located in the East European Plain. We analyzed the sediments of the lake for pollen, subfossil Cladocera, macrofossils and chemical composition. We aimed at disentangling: (1) the climate changes and their limno-ecological responses, (2) temperature dynamics with the use of Cladocera-based transfer function (MJT) and macrofossil-based reconstruction of mean minimum July temperature (MMJT), (3) timing of the response of different proxies to environmental changes. The results of multiproxy analyses explicitly suggest that the main driver for changes in aquati…
Winter climate signal in boreal clastic-biogenic varves : a comprehensive analysis of three varved records from 1890 to 1990 AD with meteorological a…
2017
Clastic-biogenic varves are widely used for reconstructing past climate: in boreal environments, the accumulation of minerogenic clasts on the lake floor is generally considered a proxy for past variations in spring floods reflecting previous winter conditions. However, the physical mechanisms behind this winter climate sensitivity and the influence of catchment type on the varve formation are not fully investigated. Here, we present a winter climate record inferred from the clastic laminae of three lakes located on the region of fine-grained tills in Eastern Finland spanning from AD 1890 to 1990. The minerogenic varve data are compared with instrumental meteorological and hydrological time…
North Atlantic Oscillation recorded in carbonate δ18O signature from Lagunillo del Tejo (Spain)
2016
Abstract Oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotope compositions of authigenic carbonates measured in Lagunillo del Tejo sediment document precipitation variability during the last millennium in the Iberian Range. Modern water samples show that Lagunillo δ18O and δD plot below the Global Meteoric Water Line (GMWL). Sediment samples show a covariant trend between carbonate δ18O and δ13C, indicating that the precipitation/evaporation ratio has largely controlled the isotopic composition of this lake. This covariant trend is used to extract information about past lake level changes. Humid periods occurred around AD 1300–1450, AD 1620–1775 and AD 1950–1980, while the driest periods were concentrat…
Shell sclerochronology and stable isotopes of the bivalve Anomalocardia flexuosa (Linnaeus, 1767) from southern Brazil: Implications for environmenta…
2017
Abstract This study presents the first stable isotopic and sclerochronological calibration of the bivalve Anomalocardia flexuosa (Linnaeus, 1767) in relation to environmental variables in a subtropical coastal area of southern Brazil. We investigate incremental shell growth patterns and δ18O and δ13C values of modern specimens collected alive from the Laguna Lagoonal System (LLS). Shells of Anomalocardia flexuosa are also one of the main biological components of pre-Columbian archaeological shell mounds and middens distributed along the Brazilian coastline. We therefore selected archaeological specimens from a local late Holocene shell mound (Cabecuda) to compare their stable carbon and oxy…