Palynological and geochemical investigation of composite sediment core Mo05 from the pre-Alpine Lake Mondsee

Comparing periods of major warming at the onset of the Lateglacial and Holocene and of major cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas reveals differences in proxy responses, reflecting threshold effects and ecosystem inertia. Temperature increase, vegetation recovery, decrease of detrital flux and intensification of biochemical calcite precipitation at the onset of the Holocene took place with only decadal leads and lags over a ca. 100 a period, whereas the spread of woodlands and the reduction of detrital flux lagged the warming at the onset of the Lateglacial Interstadial by ca. 500-750 a.

Cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas is reflected by the simultaneous reaction of d18O and vegetation, but sedimentological changes (reduction of endogenic calcite content, increase in detrital flux) were delayed by about 150-300 a. Three short-term Lateglacial cold intervals, corresponding to Greenland isotope substages GI-1d, GI-1c2 and GI-1b, also show complex proxy responses that vary in time.