VEGETATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE LATE-WURM AT LOBSIGENSEE (SWISS PLATEAU). STUDIES IN THE LATE QUATERNARY OF LOBSIGENSEE 1.

• Main Authors: Srigitta Ammann, Kazimierz Tosolski
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1983
• Subjects: Rhone; Dwarf birch
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.459.1300; http://epic.awi.de/29661/1/Amm1983a.pdf

Lobsigensee is a small lake situated northwest of Bern at 514 m asl and was covered by Rhone ice during the Wurm glaciation. Palynological and plant macrofossil studies of a Late-Wurm deposit in the littoral are presented. The stratigra-phy of the sediments is from bottom to top: sand, sandy clay, clay, lake marl, peat. The Oldest Dryas consists of three local pollen assemblage zones recording the gradual establishment of a treeless vegetation rich in heliophilous and pioneer species and also containing dwarf shrubs in its third phase. At the transition from clay to lake marl a sharp Juniperus peak initiates the Balling which is mainly dominated by tree-bir'ches. This shift from dwarf birch to tree-birches is con-firmed by the macrofossils analyzed. An equivalent of the Older Dryas is not found. The beginning of the Allerod is cha-racterized by the expansion of Pinus and its end by the volcanic ash from Laach. There are slight but consistent indica-tions of a more open vegetation during the Younger Dryas. The transition from lake marl to peat coincides with the boundary between Late-Wurm and Holocene. As in all ecological investigations, palaeoecological studies try to work on an interdiscipl inary basis. In such a "cham-ber ensemble " palynology has proven to play a strong "thorough-bass continua " : it can provide both the frame-work of late- and postglacial pollen zones and more de-tailed information about local and regional vegetation (see