Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T13:12:12.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Riss-Würm interglacial from West to East in the Alps: an overview of the vegetational succession and climatic development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

Ruth Drescher-Schneider
Ruth Drescher-Schneider*
Affiliation:
Schaftal 154, A – 8010 Kainbach/Schillingsdorf, Austria
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The vegetational and climatic developments during the Riss-Würm interglacial in the area on the northern flank of the Alps are reviewed. Reforestation seems to have begun over the whole region with a dwarf-shrub and ensuing shrub phase, leading to birch and/or pine woodland. The rise in summer temperatures, which δ180 values suggest to have been a two-stage event, permitted the immigration and expansion of more demanding trees (elm, oak, lime, ash, ivy, hazel, yew, etc.). Following the thermal maximum, which took place during the hazel and yew biozones, hornbeam dominated the forests in the alpine foreland, whilst fir/spruce forests formed the dominant vegetation at sites closer to the Alps or at a higher altitude. A marked climatic deterioration can only be recognised towards the end of the interglacial, which led to extensive spruce/pine and, finally, almost pure pine forests.

Keywords

alpine forelandclimatic developmentEemianRiss-Würm interglacialvegetational succession
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 79 , Issue 2-3 , August 2000 , pp. 233 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2000

References

Berglund, B.E. & Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, M., 1986. Handbook of Holocene palaeoecology and palaeohydrology. John Wiley & Sons (Chichester): 869 pp.Google Scholar
Beug, H.-J., 1979. Vegetationsgesehichtlich-pollenanalytische Un-tersuchungen am Rifi/Würm-Interglazial von Eurach am Starn-berger See/Obb. Geologia Bavarica 80: 91–106.Google Scholar
De Beaulieu, J.-L. & Reille, M., 1984. The pollen sequence of Les Echets (France) : a new element for the chronology of the upper Pleistocene. Géographie Physique et Quaternaire 38: 3–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Beaulieu, J.-L. & Reille, M., 1992. The last climatic cycle at La Grande Pile (Vosges, France). A new pollen profile. Quaternary Science Reviews 11: 431–438.Google Scholar
Drescher-Schneider, R. & Papesch, W., 1998. A contribution towards the reconstruction of Eemian vegetation and climate in central Europe: first results of pollen and oxygen-isotope investigations from Mondsee, Austria. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 7: 235–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frenzel, B., 1991. Das Klimä des letzten Interglazials in Europa. Palàoklimaforschung 1: 51–78.Google Scholar
Frenzel, B. & Bludau, W., 1987. On the duration of the interglacial to glacial transition at the end of the Eemian interglacial (deep sea stage 5 E): botanical and sedimentological evidence. In: Berger, W.H. & Labeyrie, L.D. (eds.): Abrupt climatic change. D. Reidel Publishing Company (Dordrecht): 151–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gremmen, W., Hannss, Ch. & Puissegur, J.J., 1984. Die warm-zeitlichen Ablagerungen am Rau de l’Amourette (Trièves, französische Alpen). Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 34: 87–103.Google Scholar
Grüger, E., 1979. Spätriß, Riß/Würm und Frühwürm am Samer-berg in Oberbayern – ein vegetationsgeschichtlicher Beitrag zur Gliederung des Jungpleistozäns. Geologia Bavarica 80: 5–64.Google Scholar
Grüger, E. & Schreiner, A. 1993. Riß/Würm und würmzeitliche Ablagerungen im Wurzacher Becken (Rheingletschergebiet). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 189:81–117.Google Scholar
Jung, W., Beug, H.-J. & Dehm, R., 1972. Das Rifi/Würm-Inter-glazial von Zeifen, Landkreis Laufen a.d. Salzach. Bayerische Akademie von Wissenschaften, Mathematische und Naturwis-senschaftliche Klasse Neue Folge 151: 130 pp.Google Scholar
Müller, H., 1974. Pollenanalytische Untersuchungen und Jahress-chichtenzählungen an der eem-zeitlichen Kieselgur von Bispin-gen/Luhe. Geologisches Jahrbuch A 21: 149–169.Google Scholar
Pons, A., Guiot, J., De Beaulieu, J.-L. & Reille, M., 1992. Recent contribution to the climatology of the last glacial-interglacial cycle based on French pollen sequences. Quaternary Science Reviews 11:439–448.Google Scholar
Wegmüller, S., 1992. Vegetationsgeschichtliche und stratigraphis-che Untersuchungen an Schieferkohlen des nördlichen Alpen-vorlandes. Denkschrifte der Schweizerischen Akademie der Naturwissenschaften 102: 82 pp.Google Scholar
Welten, M., 1982. Pollenanalytische Untersuchungen im Jüngeren Quartär des nördlichen Alpenvorlandes der Schweiz. Beiträge zur Geologischen Karte der Schweiz, Neue Folge 156: 174 pp.Google Scholar
Woillard, G.M., 1978. Grande Pile peat bog: a continuous pollen record for the last 140.000 years. Quaternary Research 9: 1–21.Google Scholar
Zagwijn, W.H., 1996. An analysis of Eemian climate in western and central Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews 15: 451–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar