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Department of Geography

 

Into and out of the Younger Dryas at Haemelsee, Northern Germany

2013 – ongoing

PI: Christine Lane, Stefan Engels.
Collaborators: Achim Brauer and Dirk Sachse (Helmholtz Centre, GFZ Potsdam), Wim Hoek (Physical Geography, Utrecht University), Fredereike Wagner-Cremer, Josef Merkt and INTIMATE Example participants.

Initiated out of the first INTIMATE Example research and training school Germany in 2013, funded by EU COST Action ES0907, the research at Lake Haemelsee is a truly collaborative initiative. Early career and experienced researchers from across the INTegrating Ice core MArine and TErrestrial environments (INTIMATE) scientific network collected cores from Lake Haemelsee in 2013 and have since worked together within more than twelve laboratories to carry out a multi-proxy investigation of the record.

The sediments at Haemelsee record in detail the local to regional environmental responses to that palaeoclimate and palaeohydrological changes that occurred during the last Glacial to Interglacial Transition. Using a multi-proxy technique alongside varve and tephra dating approaches we are able to reconstruct local environmental conditions as well as aspects of the regional climate. Far travelled cryptotephra layers are to allowing us to make precise regional comparisons of the timing and sequence of change at the onset and termination of the Younger Dryas Stadial.

At the summer school we made a short film about palaeoclimate research: More than Mud – What we can learn about past climate from lake sediments.

The varve sediment record in Lake Haemelsee

Image: The varve sediment record in Lake Haemelsee. Photo credit: Willem van der Bilt.