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Holocene history of the Baltic Sea as a background for assessing records of human impact in the sediments of the Gotland Basin

Thomas Andrén

Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

Helmar Kunzendorf

Risø National Laboratory, PO Box 49, PBK-124, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark

Sediment cores from the Gotland Basin were studied for their siliceous microfossil assemblages and organic carbon content to compare recent environmental changes in the Baltic Sea with its natural long-term history. Age models were constructed using ²¹⁰Pb, 137Cs and corrected and calibrated 14C dates. The transgression that marks the onset of the Ancylus Lake stage is recorded in the sediments as a small increase in organic carbon coinciding with a peak in diatom abundance and increased diatom diversity. A minor occurrence of brackish-freshwater diatoms is recorded in the Ancylus Lake c. 9950–9750 cal. yr BP (c. 8900–8800 ¹⁴C yr BP), correlating with the onset of the Initial Litorina Sea in the Bornholm Basin. A high-productivity event is recorded in the end of the Post-Litorina Sea and corresponds to the Mediaeval warm event. An alteration in the diatom assemblage contemporaneous with a decrease in organic carbon, interpreted as representing a deterioration in the climate, correlates with the start of the ‘Little Ice Age’ about 850–700 cal. yr BP. A change dated to ad 1950–1960 is probably an effect of increased nutrient availability in the open Baltic Sea. This effect of eutrophication was probably caused by increased discharge of nutrients deriving from fertilizers, as the responding diatom species partly indicate a cold climate rather than a warm one, as would have been expected if this had been only a response to the warmer climate documented during the last 100 years or so.

Key Words: Baltic Sea • siliceous microfossils • diatoms • climate change • environmental change • Mediaeval warm event • ‘Little Ice Age’ • eutrophication • human impact • Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 10, No. 6, 687-702 (2000)
DOI: 10.1191/09596830094944


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