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Andreas Nilsson

Senior lecturer

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Holocene Hydroclimate Variability in Central Scandinavia Inferred from Flood Layers in Contourite Drift Deposits in Lake Storsjön

Author

  • Inga Labuhn
  • Dan Hammarlund
  • Emmanuel Chapron
  • Markus Czymzik
  • Jean-Pascal Dumoulin
  • Andreas Nilsson
  • Edouard Régnier
  • Joakim Robygd
  • Ulrich von Grafenstein

Summary, in English

Despite the societal importance of extreme hydroclimate events, few palaeoenvironmental studies of Scandinavian lake sediments have investigated flood occurrences. Here we present a flood history based on lithological, geochemical and mineral magnetic records of a Holocene sediment sequence collected from contourite drift deposits in Lake Storsjön (63.12° N, 14.37° E). After the last deglaciation, the lake began to form around 9800 cal yr BP, but glacial activity persisted in the catchment for ~250 years. Element concentrations and mineral magnetic properties of the sediments indicate relatively stable sedimentation conditions during the Holocene. However, human impact in the form of expanding agriculture is evident from about 1100 cal yr BP, and intensified in the 20th century. Black layers containing iron sulphide appear irregularly throughout the sequence. The increased influx of organic matter during flood events led to decomposition and oxygen consumption, and eventually to anoxic conditions in the interstitial water preserving these layers. Elevated frequencies of black layer occurrence between 3600 and 1800 cal yr BP reflect vegetation changes in the catchment as well as large-scale climatic change. Soil erosion during snowmelt flood events increased with a tree line descent since the onset of the neoglacial period (~4000 cal yr BP). The peak in black layer occurrence coincides with a prominent solar minimum ~2600 cal yr BP, which may have accentuated the observed pattern due to the prevalence of a negative NAO index, a longer snow accumulation period and consequently stronger snowmelt floods

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system

Publishing year

2018-02-06

Language

English

Publication/Series

Quaternary

Volume

1

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

MDPI AG

Topic

  • Other Earth and Related Environmental Sciences

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2571-550X