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Multiproxy evidence of `Little Ice Age' palaeoenvironmental changes in a peat bog from northern Poland

AGEs: Argile, Géochimie et Environment sédimentaires, Geology, Univesity of Liège, Allée du 6 Août, B18, Sart Tilman, B-4000 Liège, Belgium, fdevleeschouwer{at}gmail.com, Silesian University of Technology, Institute of Physics, Department of Radioisotopes, GADAM Centre of Excellence, Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Natalia Piotrowska

Silesian University of Technology, Institute of Physics, Department of Radioisotopes, GADAM Centre of Excellence, Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Jarosaw Sikorski

Silesian University of Technology, Institute of Physics, Department of Radioisotopes, GADAM Centre of Excellence, Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Jacek Pawlyta

Silesian University of Technology, Institute of Physics, Department of Radioisotopes, GADAM Centre of Excellence, Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Andriy Cheburkin

Institute of Environmental Geochemistry, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 236, B-69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Gaël Le Roux

AGEs: Argile, Géochimie et Environment sédimentaires, Geology, Univesity of Liège, Allée du 6 Août, B18, Sart Tilman, B-4000 Liège, Belgium

Mariusz Lamentowicz

Department of Biogeography and Palaeoecology, Institute of Palaeogeography and Geo-ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Dzigielowa 27, 61-680 Pozna, Poland

Nathalie Fagel

AGEs: Argile, Géochimie et Environment sédimentaires, Geology, Univesity of Liège, Allée du 6 Août, B18, Sart Tilman, B-4000 Liège, Belgium

Dmitri Mauquoy

Geography & Environment, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK

`Little Ice Age' (LIA) climatic deteriorations have been abundantly documented in various archives such as ice, lake sediments and peat bog deposits. Palaeoecological analyses of peat samples have identified these climatic deteriorations using a range of techniques, for example palynology, plant macrofossils, testate amoebae or carbon isotopic analyses. The use of inorganic geochemistry and the reconstruction of dust fluxes has remained a challenge in tracing the nature of LIA climatic changes. Although the idea of enhanced erosion conditions and storminess is commonly discussed, the conditions for dust deposition in peatlands over Europe during the LIA are rarely favourable, because the natural forest cover over Europe was much more important than nowadays, preventing dust deposition. This intense forest canopy masks the deposition of dust in peatlands. In northern Poland, near the Baltic shore, the Sowiskie Bota area was deforested around AD 1100, ie, just before the LIA, and therefore constitutes a key area for the reconstruction of LIA climatic change. With the support of a well-constrained chronology, climatic fluctuations are recorded in an ombrotrophic bog using inorganic geochemistry, plant macrofossils and carbon isotopic analyses. The reconstruction of LIA climatic changes is in good agreement with other records from Poland and NE Europe. However, a c. 50-year discrepancy can be observed between various records. This discrepancy is possibly due to progressive time-dependent cooling gradient from north to south Europe.

Key Words: Peat • multiproxy • `Little Ice Age' • geochemistry • stable isotopes • radiocarbon • lead 210 • last millennium • Poland.

The Holocene, Vol. 19, No. 4, 625-637 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683609104027


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