This dataset provides chironomid abundance data for a Mid Weichselian sediment sequence retrieved from the Reichwalde mine situated in the Niederlausitz area (Germany) in 1999. Percent-abundances of individual chironomid taxa are presented against relative core depth (m). The lake deposit was encountered in an exposure of Weichselian sediments and was sampled using a box core. The material was dated to the early Mid Weichselian (ca 50ka BP) using 14C dating. A total of 18 samples were analysed for their chironomid content. Samples were taken from the box core, weighted, and subsequently processed in the laboratory (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands) using standard protocols - this involved 20min treatment with warm KOH (10%) and sieving over a 100µm mesh. Chironomid head capsules were subsequently handpicked from the residue, mounted on permanent microscope slides, and identified using the literature. This dataset provides chironomid percent-abundances relative to the total count of chironomid head capsules per sample. The chironomid dataset provides insight in the natural evolution of the lake ecosystem and was used to produce a chironomid-inferred July air temperature record.
This dataset provides chironomid percent-abundance data for an Early Weichselian sediment sequence retrieved from the Nochten mine (Niederlausitz area, Germany) in 2004. Percent-abundances of individual chironomid taxa are presented against relative core depth (m). The lake deposit was encountered in an exposure of Weichselian sediments and was sampled using a box core. The material was dated to the Early Weichselian (ca 80ka BP) using a combination of OSL and 14C dating. A total of 13 samples were analysed for their chironomid content. Samples were taken from the box core, weighted, and subsequently processed in the laboratory (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands) using standard protocols – this involved 20min treatment with warm KOH (10%) and sieving over a 100µm mesh. Chironomid head capsules were subsequently handpicked from the residue, mounted on permanent microscope slides, and identified using the literature. This dataset provides chironomid percent-abundances relative to the total count of chironomid head capsules per sample. The chironomid dataset provides insight in the natural evolution of the lake ecosystem and was used to produce a chironomid-inferred July air temperature record.
Objective: To quantify climatic change (especially warm and wet periods) in the last two interglacials, during the transitions to the following ice ages, and in the corresponding late glacial and selected interstadial stages. General information: research will quantify the course of warm and wet periodes during major climate fluctuations of the past, on the finest possible timescale based on analysis of seasonal marine deposits in central Europe. The research will concentrate not only on the end of the last two interglacials but also on major interstadials during the last ice age and the late glacial stages of the last two ice ages. The background to this research is the hypothesis, much discussed in the recent literature, that the climate of the last interglacial may have changed into the last ice age within a space of 150 +/-75 years; it is further suggested that the swing between the cold phases and warm phases (interstadials) of ice ages have been equally rapid and the even faster temperature downturns have occurred within interglacials. The accuracy of the climate reconstructions is to be checked through features unrelated to pollen production and deposition, such as the point when the permafrost has appeared and disappeared at the transition between cold and warm periods or the distribution during warm periods of flora and fauna highly sensitive to temperature. The time taken by such species to spread has to be taken into account. The influx of new species is fairly well understood from previous work and should pose no insuperable problems.