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Radiocarbon-dated peat development: anthropogenic and climatic signals in a Holocene raised bog and lake profile from the Eastern part of the Carpathian Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2018

Réka Orsolya Tapody*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Szeged, Egyetem street 2, 6722 Szeged, Hungary
Sándor Gulyás
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Szeged, Egyetem street 2, 6722 Szeged, Hungary
Tünde Törőcsik
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Szeged, Egyetem street 2, 6722 Szeged, Hungary Isotope Climatology and Environmental Research Centre, Institute for Nuclear Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki), Bem tér 18/c, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary
Pál Sümegi
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Szeged, Egyetem street 2, 6722 Szeged, Hungary Archaeological Institute of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Úri street 49, Budapest, Hungary
Dávid Molnár
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Szeged, Egyetem street 2, 6722 Szeged, Hungary
Balázs P Sümegi
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Szeged, Egyetem street 2, 6722 Szeged, Hungary Isotope Climatology and Environmental Research Centre, Institute for Nuclear Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki), Bem tér 18/c, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary
Mihály Molnár
Affiliation:
Isotope Climatology and Environmental Research Centre, Institute for Nuclear Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki), Bem tér 18/c, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary
*
*Corresponding author. Email: tapody@geo.u-szeged.hu.
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Abstract

The peat bog at Homoródszentpál Kerek-tó (Round Lake), situated in Homoród Hills of the Eastern Carpathians in Romania, provides a continuous record of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes from the Early Holocene. In this study, we present a 7500-year-long high-resolution record of past climatic changes and signs of human impact recorded in a peat bog via integrating sedimentological, paleoecological and geochemical proxies. The basin of Round Lake formed around the Pleistocene–Holocene border when the permafrost thawed. Ponded water accumulated in the catchment basin from the beginning of the Holocene but ca. 7500 cal BP years ago lacustrine sedimentation was exchanged for peat accumulation. The 570-cm-long core was subsampled at 2–4 cm intervals and subjected to grain-size, loss-on-ignition (LOI), pollen, and radiocarbon (14C) analyses. Our findings were correlated with and interpreted in the light of paleobotanical records deriving from archaeological sites and the newest bioclimatological models of the nearby areas. Sedimentological analysis document erosion and accumulation events which were influenced by more complex processes like climate change. Based on environmental historical and climatic data we aimed to reconstruct the environmental changes of forested areas in the Homoródi Hills.

Information

Type
Soil
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 
Figure 0

Figure 1 SMRT map of the Transylvania within the studied site (Round Lake at Homoródszentpál) (A) and the location of core site on the 3D map (B).

Figure 1

Figure 2 Reconstructed age-depth curve and calculated linear sedimentation rates using 14C age tiepoints and calculated sedimentation rates for sampled intervals using the Bayesian age-depth model for core Round Lake at Homoródszentpál [Sânpaul, Romania].

Figure 2

Figure 3 Magnetic susceptibility, grain size, loss on ignition and most of the important pollen data from the sequence of the Round Lake at Homoródszentpál [Sânpaul, Romania].

Figure 3

Table 1 Results of 14C AMS analysis.

Figure 4

Table 2 Calibrated and modeled age ranges received via Bayesian modeling using varying deposition rates.

Figure 5

Table 3 Main prehistorical and historical periods as identified by archaeological remains in the Homoród Hills (based on Dumitrescu et al. 1982; Härke 1982; Collis 1984; Mantu 1996; Mantu 1998; Dumitroaia 2000; Bolohan 2010; Lazarovici 2010; Wells 2010; Boghian and Enea 2013; Harper 2013).

Figure 6

Figure 4 Synthetic representation of the second half of the Holocene human and climatic environment in the context of paleoecological, and paleoclimatological data from Transylvania and Round Lake at Homoródszentpál (Sânpaul, Romania). AMS = AMS radiocarbon measuring point, A = archaeological and historical horizons, B = Blytt – Sernander systeme, C = archaeological and historical cultural horizons (based on Dumitrescu 1982; Härke 1982; Collis 1984; Hertelendi et al. 1995; Mantu 1996, 1998; Dumitroaia 2000; Bolohan 2010; Lazarovici 2010; Boghian and Enea 2013; Harper 2013; Boghian et al. 2014; Wells 2010), D = paleoclimatological data, D1 = humidity of NW Transylvania (Feurdean et al. 2015; Diaconu et al. 2017; Longman et al. 2017), D2 = temperature changes in the second part of Holocene in the NW Transylvania (Feurdean et al. 2015; Diaconu et al. 2017), D3 = Mid-European high lake levels after Magny (2004), E = core sequence within Troels-Smith symbols (Troels-Smith 1955) in Round Lake at Homoródszentpál (Sânpaul, Romania), F = AP, NAP and AQUA pollen summary from the core sequence in Round Lake at Homoródszentpál (Sânpaul, Romania), G = result of the principal component analyses of the pollen and sedimentological, geochemical data from the core sequence in Round Lake at Homoródszentpál (Sânpaul, Romania) PCA1Sediment geochemistry: indicates shifts in erosion rates, PCA1Pollen: indicate degree of arboreal vegetation cover (rest of the PCs were not considered), H = local sedimentological–geochemical zones in the core sequence in Round Lake at Homoródszentpál (Sânpaul, Romania).

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