Pollen-stratigraphical records of the last glacial- interglacial transition (ca. 14-9 14C ka BP) from Italy: a contribution to the PALICLAS project

Abstract

Pollen-stratigraphical records, spanning the last glacial-interglacial transition (here defined as the period between ca. 14 and 914C ka BP), are presented for three geographical and geological contexts in Italy. In most instances the records are supported by radiocarbon dates and can be compared directly with data obtained using other palaeoenvironmental proxies. (1) Mountain context, north Italy: The evidence obtained from two successions that have accumulated in small lakes or kettle hole basins in the northern (Ligurian-Emilian) Apennines is briefly reviewed. These records, which include some coleopteran data, have already been published by Lowe and Lowe with others. The data indicate the scale of landscape changes in upland northern Italy during the last glacial-interglacial transition, and the severity of climatic conditions during the Younger Dryas chronozone. (2) Crater lake, near Rome: A new profile is available from Lago Albano (Lazio) near Rome. This crater lake sequence is being investigated as part of the multi-proxy PALICLAS project funded by the EU under the joint efforts of teams from (inter alia) Zurich, Bologna, Modena, Verbania Pallanza, Liverpool and London. The record appears to span the interval from Oxygen Isotope Stage 2 to the present time. Here we describe the part of the sequence spanning the last glacial-interglacial transition, which can be compared with other records from southern Italy, especially that from Lago Grande di Monticchio. The Holocene parts of the records are outlined in Congress abstracts under the names of Van der Kaars and Accorsi. The Younger Dryas is clearly discernible in these records. (3) Marine sediment successions, Central Adriatic: A number of cores have been obtained from the sea-bottom sediments of the Adriatic by the marine geology group at Bologna, some of which were recovered as part of the PALICLAS project. High resolution pollen-stratigraphical records of the last glacial-interglacial transition obtained from two cores in the Central Adriatic are presented here for the first time. It will be shown that the records are directly comparable with those obtained from terrestrial sequences, and they therefore reveal the potential for land-sea correlations using pollen stratigraphy. Following the presentation of these various data-sets, two wider issues are discussed: (a) the degree of consistency between the various records, both within Italy and in the wider context of the Mediterranean region (see the literature), and the extent to which they indicate that marked climatic variations were responsible for the biostratigraphic changes recorded; and (b) the degree of comparison between the Italian records and high-resolution biostratigraphical data from sites in oceanic NW Europe.