Dataset Information

Chironomid dataset from Mutterbergersee: A late-Holocene paleotemperature proxy record for the Central Eastern Alps, Austria.

ABSTRACT: We present a dataset of subfossil chironomid assemblages in the MUT-10 sediment core obtained from the high alpine lake Mutterbergersee in the Austrian Alps in 2010. The data were presented in the research article by Ilyashuk et al. (2019) "The Little Ice Age signature in a 700-year high-resolution chironomid record of summer temperatures in the Central Eastern Alps". In addition to the results of the chironomid analysis of 100 sediment samples presented in this article, we also include chironomid assemblage data from an additional 48 sediment samples that complement this dataset. The data includes raw chironomid counts, percent abundance of chironomid taxa, as well as mean July air temperature estimates derived from the chironomid record based on a chironomid-temperature transfer function. We also provide information on age-dating of the sedimentary sequence. Given the high temporal resolution and the robust age-depth model of the record, the chironomid-based reconstruction of temperature since AD 1300 provides a detailed documentation of climate change in the Eastern Alps from the Little Ice Age onwards and can be used for comparison with other independent proxy-based climate reconstructions. In addition to the data, we detail the sample processing for subfossil chironomid analysis and provide a detailed description of the reconstruction technique used for producing chironomid-based quantitative temperature inferences.

SUBMITTER: Ilyashuk EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9260612 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Climate is currently warming due to anthropogenic impact on the Earth’s atmosphere. To better understand the processes and feedbacks within the climate system that underlie this accelerating warming trend, it is useful to examine past periods of abrupt climate change that were driven by natural forcings. Glaciers provide an excellent natural laboratory for reconstructing the climate of the past as they respond sensitively to climate oscillations. Therefore, we study glacier systems and their behavior during the transition from colder to warmer climate phases, focusing on the period between 15 and 10 ka. Using a combination of geomorphological mapping and beryllium-10 surface exposure dating, we reconstruct ice extents in two glaciated valleys of the Silvretta Massif in the Austrian Alps. The mountain glacier record shows that general deglaciation after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was repeatedly interrupted by glacier stabilization or readvance, perhaps during the Oldest Dryas to Bølling transition (landform age: 14.4 ± 1.0 ka) and certainly during the Younger Dryas (YD; 12.9–11.7 ka) and the Early Holocene (EH; 12–10 ka). The oldest landform age indicates a lateral ice margin that postdates the ‘Gschnitz’ stadial (ca. 17–16 ka) and predates the YD. It shows that local inner-alpine glaciers were more extensive until the onset of the Bølling warm phase (ca. 14.6 ka), or possibly even into the Bølling than during the subsequent YD. The second age group, ca. 80 m below the (pre-)Bølling ice margin, indicates glacier extents during the YD cold phase and captures the spatial and temporal fine structure of glacier retreat during this period. The ice surface lowered approximately 50–60 m through the YD, which is indicative of milder climate conditions at the end of the YD compared to its beginning. Finally, the third age group falls into a period of more substantial warming, the YD–EH transition, and shows discontinuous glacier retreat during the glacial to interglacial transition. The new geochronologies synthesized with pre-existing moraine records from the Silvretta Massif evidence multiple cold phases that punctuated the general post-LGM warming trend and illustrate the sensitive response of Silvretta glaciers to abrupt climate oscillations in the past.

Project description:Prehistoric mines are often too large and too deep for conventional archaeological excavations. Non-destructive and minimally invasive methods of prospection can help to overcome these limits. Our case study of a Late Bronze Age opencast mine (ca. 1050 to 780 BC) shows the potential of geophysical prospection methods combined with core drillings. For the reconstruction of this mine, we combined electrical resistivity and induced polarization (IP) tomography, seismic refraction tomography (SRT) and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The geophysical data were collected based on an orthogonal grid of 10 longitudinal and transverse profiles, laid out over an area of ~330 × 300 m. The profiles allowed a three-dimensional interpolation of the geological units, the mining dumps, the mining areas and the residual mineralization. Additionally, two deep cores were drilled to ground-truth the geophysical prospection results. They provided information about the stratification at intersections of the measurement grid, and this proved crucial for validating the interpreted geophysical profiles. Each geophysical method applied provided different information for the reconstruction of the site: the electrical resistivity tomography offered the best clues as to the locations of the geological units and the dumps, the seismic refraction tomography visualized the transition between the dump or backfill layers and the underlying bedrock, and the IP measurements revealed residual mineralization. The georadar measurements, on the other hand, did not contribute to the interpretation owing to the limited depth of penetration. Based on the combination of borehole and geophysical data, it was possible to develop a hypothetical model of an open-pit mine for copper ore that developed in three phases (mines A-C) during the Late Bronze Age. Without the control provided by the core drillings, one of the mining areas (mine A) could not have been correctly identified in the geophysical prospections.

Dataset Information

Chironomid dataset from Mutterbergersee: A late-Holocene paleotemperature proxy record for the Central Eastern Alps, Austria.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets