Raimund Muscheler
Professor
A varved lake sediment record of the 10Be solar activity proxy for the Lateglacial-Holocene transition
Author
Summary, in English
Solar modulated variations in cosmogenic radionuclide production provide both information on past changes in the activity of the Sun and a global synchronization tool. However, to date the use of cosmogenic radionuclides for these applications is almost exclusively based on 10Be records from ice cores and 14C time-series from tree rings, all including archive-specific limitations. We present the first 10Be record from annually laminated (varved) lake sediments for the Lateglacial-Holocene transition from Meerfelder Maar. We quantify environmental influences on the catchment and, consequently, 10Be deposition using a new approach based on regression analyses between our 10Be record and environmental proxy time-series from the same archive. Our analyses suggest that environmental influences contribute to up to 37% of the variability in our 10Be record, but cannot be the main explanation for major 10Be excursions. Corrected for these environmental influences, our 10Be record is interpreted to dominantly reflect changes in solar modulated cosmogenic radionuclide production. The preservation of a solar production signal in 10Be from varved lake sediments highlights the largely unexplored potential of these archives for solar activity reconstruction, as global synchronization tool and, thus, for more robust paleoclimate studies.
Department/s
- Quaternary Sciences
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
Publishing year
2016-12-01
Language
English
Pages
31-39
Publication/Series
Quaternary Science Reviews
Volume
153
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Geology
Keywords
- Be
- Solar activity
- Time-scales
- Varved lake sediments
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0277-3791