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THE SECOND EARLY WURMIAN INTERSTADIAL RECORDED IN PALAEOLAKE SEDIMENTS FROM THE ALPS (AUSTRIA): CHIRONOMID-BASED SUMMER TEMPERATURE INFERENCES
Abstract
The early part of the last glacial period (referred to as Wurmian in the European Alps) was characterized by two long and relatively warm interstadials which can be traced and correlated across large parts of Europe. Detailed information about environmental changes and erosional/depositional processes during the Early to Middle Wurmian is available from sedimentary records preserved in glacially carved valleys and basins of the Alps and their forelands. Especially lacustrine sections best preserving palaeoenvironmental proxies are important natural archives for palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate reconstructions. Here we present a chironomid (Diptera: Chironomidae) record from Early Wurmian deposits of a palaeolake at the inner-alpine Unterangerberg terrace in the lower Inn Valley (Eastern Alps, Austria). Recent palynological investigations as well as radiocarbon and luminescence dating indicate that a part of the succession formed during the Second Early Wurmian Interstadial (St. Germain II/Odderade, synchronous with Marine Isotope Stage 5a, ca. 80 ka), when a closed coniferous forest with thermophilous components grew adjacent to the ancient lake. This study provides a temperature reconstruction based on chironomid assemblages recovered from this deposit. Quantitative mean July air temperature estimates were produced using a temperature inference model based on chironomid assemblages from 274 European lakes. The record provides evidence for an increase in temperature from ca. 13?14°C at the onset of the interstadial to a temperature very close to or slightly warmer than present-day values (ca. 17°C). A decrease in air temperature to ca. 14°C is inferred towards the end of the interstadial. The reconstructed temperature evolution across this major interstadial is in good agreement with the quantified minimum mean temperatures of the warmest month of 13?17°C based on modern analogue vegetation types reported from similar lacustrine sequences along the northern rim of the Alps, including Samerberg and Furamoos (SW Germany).
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