Environmental changes in the late Allerød and early Younger Dryas in the Netherlands: a multiproxy high-resolution record from a site with two Pinus sylvestris populations

Jos Bazelmans*, Ronald van Balen, Johanna Bos, Otto Brinkkemper, Jesper Colenberg, Petra Doeve, Bas van Geel, Tom Hakbijl, Hans van Hateren, Wim Z. Hoek, Hans Huisman, Esther Jansma, Cornelis Kasse, Bertil van Os, Hans van der Plicht, Jeroen Schokker, Nathalie Van der Putten, John van der Woude

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In the Netherlands, several proxies of climate change during the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT) (c. 14,700 to 11,700 b2k) have been investigated in detail over the last few decades. The present paper presents two tree-ring chronologies LETR-A (n = 16, timespan 106 rings) and LETR-B (n = 24, timespan 201 rings) from in situ subfossil pine remains (Pinus sylvestris) discovered at Leusden-Den Treek in the Netherlands that date from the Bølling-Allerød interstadial (GI-1). Using a multiproxy approach (both abiotic and biotic), it was possible to study local woodland development in detail as part of long-term environmental change. Moreover, the trees opened up possibilities for dendrochronological and dendroclimatological research. The tree-ring series show the occurrence of two successive phases of pine woodland development, which were 14C dated with high precision and calibrated using the recent IntCal20 14C calibration curve: 13,450–13,396 to 13,370–13,316 calBP (series LETR-A) and 12,952–12,937 to 12,754–12,739 calBP (series LETR-B). At the north-western boundary of its ecotone, Pinus was highly sensitive to climate change during the latter part of GI-1 and the transition to GS-1. The inability to set fruit and the disappearance of the pine woodland within decades before and after c. 12,745 calBP is interpreted as the vegetational response to abrupt climate deterioration at the start of the Younger Dryas (12,807 ± 12 cal BP).

Original languageEnglish
Article number107199
Pages (from-to)1-21
Number of pages21
JournalQuaternary Science Reviews
Volume272
Early online date13 Oct 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank J.M.A. Diepenhorst, the rentmeester of the Den Treek-Henschoten estate, Jkvr. F. de Beaufort, member of the Board of Directors of the Den Treek-Henschoten estate, the estate manager M. Nolsen, and A. Buijtenhuis, the director of Buijtenhuis Nijkerk B.V., for their permission and their support for the field research in 2016–2017. The excavation would not have been possible without the mediation and support of M. van Heek of Eye and Image. Fieldwork was carried out by Willem Derickx, Menno van der Heiden, Mario van IJzendoorn, Wim Jong and Jan Willem de Kort (all Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort). The dendrochronological research done by the Netherlands Centre for Dendrochronology/RING Foundation, Amersfoort, was funded by the Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort , grant number MS2017-236 (d.d. 1-12-2017) . We benefited from discussions with Dr B. Kromer from Heidelberg University on the interpretation of the 14 C dates from Leusden-Den Treek. We thank Michael Friedrich for the opportunity to compare the dendrochronological data from Leusden with those from Warendorf, Reichwalde, the German Danube and Breithenthal. We would like to thank Annette Visser for her editing services and preparing the article for publication and Marjolein Haars for the artwork.

Funding Information:
We would like to thank J.M.A. Diepenhorst, the rentmeester of the Den Treek-Henschoten estate, Jkvr. F. de Beaufort, member of the Board of Directors of the Den Treek-Henschoten estate, the estate manager M. Nolsen, and A. Buijtenhuis, the director of Buijtenhuis Nijkerk B.V. for their permission and their support for the field research in 2016?2017. The excavation would not have been possible without the mediation and support of M. van Heek of Eye and Image. Fieldwork was carried out by Willem Derickx, Menno van der Heiden, Mario van IJzendoorn, Wim Jong and Jan Willem de Kort (all Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort). The dendrochronological research done by the Netherlands Centre for Dendrochronology/RING Foundation, Amersfoort, was funded by the Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort, grant number MS2017-236 (d.d. 1-12-2017). We benefited from discussions with Dr B. Kromer from Heidelberg University on the interpretation of the 14C dates from Leusden-Den Treek. We thank Michael Friedrich for the opportunity to compare the dendrochronological data from Leusden with those from Warendorf, Reichwalde, the German Danube and Breithenthal. We would like to thank Annette Visser for her editing services and preparing the article for publication and Marjolein Haars for the artwork.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors

Keywords

  • Allerød
  • Climate change
  • Dendrochronology
  • In situ Late Glacial tree remains
  • Multiproxy analysis
  • Pinus sylvestris
  • Waterlogged Usselo or Finow soil
  • Younger Dryas event

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