Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe

Stefan Engels; Christine S. Lane; Aritina Haliuc; Wim Z. Hoek; Francesco Muschitiello; Ilaria Baneschi; Annerieke Bouwman; Christopher Bronk Ramsey; James Collins; Renee de Bruijn; Oliver Heiri; Katalin Hubay; Gwydion Jones; Andreas Laug; Josef Merkt; Meike Müller; Tom Peters; Francien Peterse; Richard A. Staff; Anneke T. M. ter Schure; Falko Turner; Valerie van den Bos; Frederike Wagner-Cremer

doi:10.1038/s43247-022-00457-y

Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe

Stefan Engels, Christine S. Lane, Aritina Haliuc, Wim Z. Hoek, Francesco Muschitiello, Ilaria Baneschi, Annerieke Bouwman, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, James Collins, Renee de Bruijn, Oliver Heiri, Katalin Hubay, Gwydion Jones, Andreas Laug, Josef Merkt, Meike Müller, Tom Peters, Francien Peterse, Richard A. Staff, Anneke T. M. ter SchureFalko Turner, Valerie van den Bos, Frederike Wagner-Cremer

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The North Atlantic region experienced abrupt high-amplitude cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial. However, due to chronological uncertainties in the available terrestrial records it is unclear whether terrestrial ecosystem response to this event was instantaneous and spatially synchronous, or whether regional or time-transgressive lags existed. Here we use new palynological results from a robustly dated lake sediment sequence retrieved from lake Hämelsee (north Germany) to show that vegetation change started at 12,820 cal. yr BP, concurrent with the onset of changes in local climate. A comparison of the Hämelsee results to a compilation of precisely dated palynological records shows instant and, within decadal-scale dating uncertainty, synchronous response of the terrestrial plant community to Late-Glacial climate change across northwest Europe. The results indicate that the environmental impact of climate cooling was more severe than previously thought and illustrates the sensitivity of natural terrestrial ecosystems to external forcing.

Original language	English
Article number	130
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Journal	Communications Earth & Environment
Volume	3
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00457-y
Publication status	Published - Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study makes a contribution to the INTIMATE project (INTegrating Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial records, http://intimate.nbi.ku.dk/ ) and follows on from the INTIMATE Example 2013 Research and Training school, which was funded by COST action ES0907. We thank all of the participants in the INTIMATE Example 2013 training school for their contribution to this research, as well as Camping Rittergut Hämelsee and the coring team. We thank Hilary and John Birks for providing the pollen data from lake Kråkenes for comparison and Achim Brauer and Dirk Sachse for supporting laboratory analyses and for providing helpful comments on a previous draft of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

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s43247-022-00457-yFinal published version, 4.8 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Engels, S., Lane, C. S., Haliuc, A., Hoek, W. Z., Muschitiello, F., Baneschi, I., Bouwman, A., Bronk Ramsey, C., Collins, J., de Bruijn, R., Heiri, O., Hubay, K., Jones, G., Laug, A., Merkt, J., Müller, M., Peters, T., Peterse, F., Staff, R. A., ... Wagner-Cremer, F. (2022). Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe. Communications Earth & Environment, 3(1), 1-10. Article 130. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00457-y

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title = "Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe",

abstract = "The North Atlantic region experienced abrupt high-amplitude cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial. However, due to chronological uncertainties in the available terrestrial records it is unclear whether terrestrial ecosystem response to this event was instantaneous and spatially synchronous, or whether regional or time-transgressive lags existed. Here we use new palynological results from a robustly dated lake sediment sequence retrieved from lake H{\"a}melsee (north Germany) to show that vegetation change started at 12,820 cal. yr BP, concurrent with the onset of changes in local climate. A comparison of the H{\"a}melsee results to a compilation of precisely dated palynological records shows instant and, within decadal-scale dating uncertainty, synchronous response of the terrestrial plant community to Late-Glacial climate change across northwest Europe. The results indicate that the environmental impact of climate cooling was more severe than previously thought and illustrates the sensitivity of natural terrestrial ecosystems to external forcing.",

author = "Stefan Engels and Lane, {Christine S.} and Aritina Haliuc and Hoek, {Wim Z.} and Francesco Muschitiello and Ilaria Baneschi and Annerieke Bouwman and {Bronk Ramsey}, Christopher and James Collins and {de Bruijn}, Renee and Oliver Heiri and Katalin Hubay and Gwydion Jones and Andreas Laug and Josef Merkt and Meike M{\"u}ller and Tom Peters and Francien Peterse and Staff, {Richard A.} and {ter Schure}, {Anneke T. M.} and Falko Turner and {van den Bos}, Valerie and Frederike Wagner-Cremer",

note = "Funding Information: This study makes a contribution to the INTIMATE project (INTegrating Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial records, http://intimate.nbi.ku.dk/ ) and follows on from the INTIMATE Example 2013 Research and Training school, which was funded by COST action ES0907. We thank all of the participants in the INTIMATE Example 2013 training school for their contribution to this research, as well as Camping Rittergut H{\"a}melsee and the coring team. We thank Hilary and John Birks for providing the pollen data from lake Kr{\aa}kenes for comparison and Achim Brauer and Dirk Sachse for supporting laboratory analyses and for providing helpful comments on a previous draft of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

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doi = "10.1038/s43247-022-00457-y",

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Engels, S, Lane, CS, Haliuc, A, Hoek, WZ, Muschitiello, F, Baneschi, I, Bouwman, A, Bronk Ramsey, C, Collins, J, de Bruijn, R, Heiri, O, Hubay, K, Jones, G, Laug, A, Merkt, J, Müller, M, Peters, T, Peterse, F, Staff, RA, ter Schure, ATM, Turner, F, van den Bos, V & Wagner-Cremer, F 2022, 'Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe', Communications Earth & Environment, vol. 3, no. 1, 130, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00457-y

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T1 - Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe

AU - Engels, Stefan

AU - Lane, Christine S.

AU - Haliuc, Aritina

AU - Hoek, Wim Z.

AU - Muschitiello, Francesco

AU - Baneschi, Ilaria

AU - Bouwman, Annerieke

AU - Bronk Ramsey, Christopher

AU - Collins, James

AU - de Bruijn, Renee

AU - Heiri, Oliver

AU - Hubay, Katalin

AU - Jones, Gwydion

AU - Laug, Andreas

AU - Merkt, Josef

AU - Müller, Meike

AU - Peters, Tom

AU - Peterse, Francien

AU - Staff, Richard A.

AU - ter Schure, Anneke T. M.

AU - Turner, Falko

AU - van den Bos, Valerie

AU - Wagner-Cremer, Frederike

N1 - Funding Information: This study makes a contribution to the INTIMATE project (INTegrating Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial records, http://intimate.nbi.ku.dk/ ) and follows on from the INTIMATE Example 2013 Research and Training school, which was funded by COST action ES0907. We thank all of the participants in the INTIMATE Example 2013 training school for their contribution to this research, as well as Camping Rittergut Hämelsee and the coring team. We thank Hilary and John Birks for providing the pollen data from lake Kråkenes for comparison and Achim Brauer and Dirk Sachse for supporting laboratory analyses and for providing helpful comments on a previous draft of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/12

Y1 - 2022/12

N2 - The North Atlantic region experienced abrupt high-amplitude cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial. However, due to chronological uncertainties in the available terrestrial records it is unclear whether terrestrial ecosystem response to this event was instantaneous and spatially synchronous, or whether regional or time-transgressive lags existed. Here we use new palynological results from a robustly dated lake sediment sequence retrieved from lake Hämelsee (north Germany) to show that vegetation change started at 12,820 cal. yr BP, concurrent with the onset of changes in local climate. A comparison of the Hämelsee results to a compilation of precisely dated palynological records shows instant and, within decadal-scale dating uncertainty, synchronous response of the terrestrial plant community to Late-Glacial climate change across northwest Europe. The results indicate that the environmental impact of climate cooling was more severe than previously thought and illustrates the sensitivity of natural terrestrial ecosystems to external forcing.

AB - The North Atlantic region experienced abrupt high-amplitude cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial. However, due to chronological uncertainties in the available terrestrial records it is unclear whether terrestrial ecosystem response to this event was instantaneous and spatially synchronous, or whether regional or time-transgressive lags existed. Here we use new palynological results from a robustly dated lake sediment sequence retrieved from lake Hämelsee (north Germany) to show that vegetation change started at 12,820 cal. yr BP, concurrent with the onset of changes in local climate. A comparison of the Hämelsee results to a compilation of precisely dated palynological records shows instant and, within decadal-scale dating uncertainty, synchronous response of the terrestrial plant community to Late-Glacial climate change across northwest Europe. The results indicate that the environmental impact of climate cooling was more severe than previously thought and illustrates the sensitivity of natural terrestrial ecosystems to external forcing.

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DO - 10.1038/s43247-022-00457-y

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JF - Communications Earth & Environment

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ER -

Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe

Abstract

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