Temperature and palaeolake evolution during a Middle Pleistocene interglacial–glacial transition at the Palaeolithic locality of Schöningen, Germany

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Kim J. Krahn
  • Brigitte Urban
  • Sylvia Pinkerneil
  • David J. Horne
  • Mario Tucci
  • Andreas Koutsodendris
  • Antje Schwalb

The Middle Pleistocene Reinsdorf sequence at the Lower Palaeolithic sites of Schöningen offers the opportunity to reconstruct a rarely well-preserved post-Holsteinian environmental transition from an interglacial into a glacial phase along with its highly dynamic interjacent climatic oscillations. Combining biological proxies, element composition and stable isotope ratios of two lakeshore sequences at excavation site 13 II, we demonstrate repeated variations in climate, hydrology and catchment vegetation cover. New ostracod-based quantitative mean summer and winter air temperature reconstructions with the Mutual Ostracod Temperature Range (MOTR) method provide the first detailed information about the temperature evolution. The interglacial temperature maximum, probably corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 9e, is followed by a first dry phase and, during the younger part of the Reinsdorf sequence, by a second dry period. Both were marked by lower precipitation/evaporation ratios, reduced vegetation cover in the catchment and increased surface inflows from springs. Temperature reconstructions of these two steppe (open woodland) phases yield very narrow ranges for mean January (−4–0 °C) and July (+17–19 or +17–21 °C) air temperatures, demonstrating that, while summers were similar to those of today, winters were at least 1 °C colder, hinting at a more pronounced continental climate. Precise temperature estimates for the interjacent woodland and steppe (woodland) phase are hindered by generally wider ranges produced by the MOTR method (January mean −4–3 °C, July mean +15–21 °C). The development of a more extensive vegetation cover, reducing surface runoff and erosion in favour of increased river and groundwater discharge, as indicated by a shift in microfossil and stable isotope records, suggests generally more humid climates with higher precipitation/evaporation ratios as well as reduced seasonal temperature variations.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBoreas
Volume53
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)504-524
Number of pages21
ISSN0300-9483
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10.2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Boreas published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Boreas Collegium.

DOI

Recently viewed

Activities

  1. Personal norms of sustainability and their consequences in ecological-economic systems under uncertainty – The case of rangeland management in semi-arid regions
  2. Poster: Evaluation der Special Olympics Handball-Nationalteams
  3. Voluntary migration to cosmopolitan cities and risk-taking
  4. Conference of the Environmental and Sustainability Management Accounting Network - EMAN 2016
  5. Gründungsplanung I: Einführung in die Gründungsplanung: Aufbau eines Business Plans BP, Funktion, Bedeutung und Einsatzbereich
  6. Unrechtserfahrung und geschichtliche Erinnerung im Exilwerk Ernst Cassirers
  7. Modellierungsaufgaben – Der Einfluss von sprachlichen, innermathematischen Fähigkeiten und dem Aufgabenkontext
  8. Kultivierung von heterotrophen Mikroalgen in organischen Abfällen zur Verwertung von Food Waste
  9. Just Leave Us Alone: The Arab League and Human Rights
  10. "'weep! 'weep!". Der kleine Schornsteinfeger in der britischen Literatur des langen 19. Jahrhunderts
  11. Unterricht beobachten, einschätzen und Feedback geben“ für Lehrkräfte in Studienleitung
  12. Determinants of Social Entrepreneurial Appraisal Among Hearing-impaired Persons
  13. Gegen den Strich. Die neopragmatische Soziologie von Henrik Kreutz
  14. Aerobic biodegradability assessment of Cefazolin and its phototransformation products
  15. Professionalisierungsprozesse in der kunstvermittelnden Lehrer*innenbildung
  16. 2nd International Scientific Conference on Regional development, spatial planning and strategic governance - RESPAG 2013
  17. Raum & Gender – eine inter- und transdisziplinäre Spurensuche
  18. Reflexive Demokratie: eine metapolitische Reaktion auf die dritte demokratische Transformation