Interactions between climate and vegetation during the Lateglacial period as recorded by lake and mire sediment archives in Northern Italy and Southern Switzerland

Abstract

We reconstruct the vegetational history of the southern side of the Alps at 18,000-10,000 cal yr BP using previous and new AMS-dated stratigraphic records of pollen, stomata, and macrofossils. To address potential effects of climatic change on vegetation, we compare our results with independent paleoclimatic series (e.g. isotope and chironomid records from the Alps and the Alpine forelands). The period before 16,000 cal yr BP is documented only at the lowland sites. The previous studies used for comparison with our new Palughetto record, however, shows that Alpine deglaciation must have started before 18,000-17,500 cal yr BP south of the Alps and that deglaciated sites were colonized by open woods and shrublands (Juniperus, tree Betula, Larix, Pinus cembra) at ca 17,500 cal yr BP. The vegetational history of a new site (Palughetto, 1040 m a.s.l.) is consistent with that of previous investigations in the study region. Our results show three conspicuous vegetational shifts delimited by statistically significant pollen zones, at ca 14,800-14,400, 13,300-12,800 and 11,600-11,200 cal yr BP. At sites situated above 1000 m a.s.l. (e.g. Palughetto, Pian di Gembro) forests expanded in alpine environments at ca 14,500 cal yr BP (onset of Bølling period, GI-1 in the Greenland ice record). At the same time, rather closed treeline communities of the lowlands were replaced by dense stands of Pinus sylvestris and Betula. These early forests and shrublands consisted of Larix, P. cembra, Juniperus, P. sylvestris, Pinus mugo, and Betula, and had become established at ca 16,000 cal yr BP, probably in response to a temperature increase. If combined with other records from the Southern Alps, our data suggest that treeline ascended by ca 800-1000 m in a few centuries at most, probably as a consequence of climatic warming at the beginning of the Bølling period. At 13,100-12,800 cal yr BP the onset of a long-lasting decline of P. sylvestris was accompanied by the expansion of Quercus and other thermophilous tree taxa below ca 600 m a.s.l. This vegetational change was probably induced by a shift to warmer climatic conditions before the onset of the Younger Dryas, as indicated by independent paleoclimatic records. Only a few centuries later, at ca 12,700-12,500 cal yr BP, an expansion of herbaceous taxa occurred in the lowlands as well as at higher altitudes, documenting an opening of forested habitats. This change coincided with the beginning of the Younger Dryas cooling (GS-1), which according to the paleoclimatic series (e.g. oxygen isotope series), started at 12,700-12,600 cal yr BP and lasted for about 1000 years. Environments south of the Alps responded markedly to climatic warming at the onset of the Holocene (11,600-11,500 cal yr BP). Thermophilous trees that had declined during the Younger Dryas re-expanded very rapidly in the lowlands and reached the high altitude sites below ca 1500 m a.s.l. within a few centuries at most. Our study implies that the synchronous vegetational changes observed over wide areas were probabl...

Climate warming and vegetation response after Heinrich event 1 (16 700–16 000 cal yr BP) in Europe south of the Alps

“…The age of this early Late Glacial climatic warming south of the Alps is not well constrained in the Origlio record. However biostratigraphical comparison (mainly pollen) with other lowland sites in southern Switzerland and northern Italy shows that afforestation in the region started around 16 000 cal yr BP (Vescovi et al, 2007), providing independent evidence for the robustness of the Origlio age-depth model. For instance, at the nearby mire Balladrum (ca.…”

“…Radiocarbon ages were converted to calendar years Before Present (cal yr BP) with the program Calib version 6.0 (Reimer et al, 2004) using the INTCAL09 dataset (Heaton et al, 2009). The main traits of vegetation history at Origlio during the past 20 000 yr were presented in Tinner et al (1999Tinner et al ( , 2005 and Vescovi et al (2007). Pollen data suggest that steppic tundra prevailed before ca.…”

“…Synchronous early afforestation processes occurred over wide areas in the lowlands of southern Switzerland and northern Italy at ∼ 16 000 cal yr BP (Vescovi et al, 2007), about 1.5 millennia prior to the onset of the Bølling/Allerød warming recorded in continental Europe (e.g. Lang, 1994;Lotter et al, 2012) and in the Greenland ice cores (GI-1, at ca.…”

“…14 650 cal yr BP before 1950, Svensson et al, 2008). Climatic warming was suggested as an explanation of the early forest expansion south of the Alps (Vescovi et al, 2007), but local non-pollen evidence for a climatic warming prior to the Bølling/Allerød, necessary to confirm this hypothesis, is presently still lacking. In contrast, afforestation north of the Alps only began at the onset of the Bølling/Allerød warming at 14 700-14 500 cal yr BP (e.g.…”

Late-glacial chironomid-based temperature reconstructions for Lago Piccolo di Avigliana in the southwestern Alps (Italy)

“…One major difference was that Quercus populations expanded 2000 years before in the southern sites, while Corylus appeared in the early Holocene, a timing similar to the one observed at the northern sites . Two hypotheses were suggested to explain these differences/similarities Vescovi et al, 2007): 1) During the Allerød, summer temperatures might have been higher in the southern Alps than in the northern Alps, explaining the expansion of Quercus 2000 years prior to its expansion in the northern Alps. 2) During the early Holocene, summer temperatures in the southern Alps might have been higher than during the Allerød, explaining the expansion of Corylus.…”