Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Quantitative high-resolution warm season rainfall recorded in varved sediments of Lake Oeschinen, northern Swiss Alps: calibration and validation AD 1901–2008

  • Original paper
  • Published:
Journal of Paleolimnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

High-resolution, well-calibrated records of lake sediments are critically important for quantitative climate reconstructions, but they remain a methodological and analytical challenge. While several comprehensive paleotemperature reconstructions have been developed across Europe, only a few quantitative high-resolution studies exist for precipitation. Here we present a calibration and verification study of lithoclastic sediment proxies from proglacial Lake Oeschinen (46°30′N, 7°44′E, 1,580 m a.s.l., north–west Swiss Alps) that are sensitive to rainfall for the period AD 1901–2008. We collected two sediment cores, one in 2007 and another in 2011. The sediments are characterized by two facies: (A) mm-laminated clastic varves and (B) turbidites. The annual character of the laminae couplets was confirmed by radiometric dating (210Pb, 137Cs) and independent flood-layer chronomarkers. Individual varves consist of a dark sand-size spring-summer layer enriched in siliciclastic minerals and a lighter clay-size calcite-rich winter layer. Three subtypes of varves are distinguished: Type I with a 1–1.5 mm fining upward sequence; Type II with a distinct fine-sand base up to 3 mm thick; and Type III containing multiple internal microlaminae caused by individual summer rainstorm deposits. Delta-fan surface samples and sediment trap data fingerprint different sediment source areas and transport processes from the watershed and confirm the instant response of sediment flux to rainfall and erosion. Based on a highly accurate, precise and reproducible chronology, we demonstrate that sediment accumulation (varve thickness) is a quantitative predictor for cumulative boreal alpine spring (May–June) and spring/summer (May–August) rainfall (rMJ = 0.71, rMJJA = 0.60, p < 0.01). Bootstrap-based verification of the calibration model reveals a root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEPMJ = 32.7 mm, RMSEPMJJA = 57.8 mm) which is on the order of 10–13 % of mean MJ and MJJA cumulative precipitation, respectively. These results highlight the potential of the Lake Oeschinen sediments for high-resolution reconstructions of past rainfall conditions in the northern Swiss Alps, central and eastern France and south-west Germany.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Appleby PG (2001) Chronostratigraphic techniques in recent sediments. In: Last WM, Smol JP (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments: basin analysis, coring, and chronological techniques. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 171–201

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnaud F, Lignier V, Revel M, Desmet M, Beck C, Pourchet M, Charlet F, Trente-Saux A, Tribovillard N (2002) Flood and earthquake disturbance of 210Pb geochronology (Lake Anterne, NW Alps). Terra Nova 14:225–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birks HJB (2005) Overview of numerical methods in palaeolimnology. In: Birks HJB, Lotter AF, Juggins S (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments: data handling and numerical techniques. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 19–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Blass A, Anselmetti FS, Ariztegui D (2003) 60 years of glaciolacustrine sedimentation in Steinsee (Sustenpass, Switzerland) compared with historic events and instrumental meteorological data. Eclogae Geol Helv 96(1):59–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Blass A, Grosjean M, Troxler A, Sturm M (2007a) How stable are twentieth-century calibration models? A high-resolution summer temperature reconstruction for the eastern Swiss Alps back to AD 1580 derived from proglacial varved sediments. Holocene 17:51–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blass A, Bigler C, Grosjean M, Sturm M (2007b) Decadal-scale autumn temperature reconstruction back to AD 1580 inferred from the varved sediments of Lake Silvaplana (south–eastern Swiss Alps). Quat Res 68:184–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunetti M, Maugeri M, Nanni T, Auer I, Böhm R, Schöner W (2006) Precipitation variability and changes in the greater Alpine region over the 1800–2003 period. J Geophys Res 111:1–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Tegel W, Nicolussi K, McCormick M, Frank D, Trouet V, Kaplan JO, Herzig F, Heussner KU, Wanner H, Luterbacher J, Esper J (2011) 2500 years of European climate variability and human susceptibility. Science 331:578–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casty C, Wanner H, Luterbacher J, Esper J, Böhm R (2005) Temperature and precipitation variability in the European Alps since 1500. Int J Clim 25:1855–1880

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cockburn JMH, Lamoureux SF (2007) Century-scale variability in late-summer rainfall events recorded over seven centuries in sub annually laminated lacustrine sediments, White Pass, British Columbia. Quat Res 67:193–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Jong R, Kamenik C (2011) Validation of a chrysophyte stomatocyst-based cold-season climate reconstruction from high Alpine Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland. J Quat Sci 26:268–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elbert J, Grosjean M, von Gunten L, Urrutia R, Fischer D, Wartenburger R, Ariztegui D, Fujak M, Hamann Y (2012) Quantitative high-resolution winter (JJA) precipitation reconstruction from varved sediments of Lago Plomo 47°S, Patagonian Andes, AD 1530–2002. Holocene 22:465–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glaciological reports, 1881–2009. The Swiss glaciers, yearbooks of the cryospheric Commission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) published since 1964 by the Labratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) of ETH Zurich. No. 1–126, (http://glaciology.ethz.ch/swiss-glaciers/)

  • Goosse H, Guiot J, Mann ME, Dubinkina S, Sallaz-Damaz Y (2012) The medieval climate anomaly in Europe: comparison of the summer and annual mean signals in two reconstructions and in simulations with data assimilation. Glob Planet Ch 84–85:35–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hegerl GC, Crowley TJ, Hyde WT, Frame DJ (2006) Climate sensitivity constrained by temperature reconstructions over the past seven centuries. Nature 440:1029–1032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heiri O, Lotter AF, Lemcke G (2001) Loss on ignition as a method for estimating organic and carbonate content in sediments: reproducibility and comparability of results. J Paleolimnol 25:101–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodder KR, Gilbert R, Desloges JR (2007) Glaciolacustrine varved sediment as an alpine hydroclimatic proxy. J Paleolimnol 38:365–394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughen KA, Overpeck JT, Anderson RF (2000) Recent warming in a 500-year palaeotemperature record from varved sediments, Upper Soper Lake, Baffin Island, Canada. Holocene 10:9–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes MK (2002) Dendrochronology in climatology—the state of the art. Dendrochronologia 20:95–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jansson P, Rosqvist G, Schneider T (2005) Glacier fluctuations, suspended sediment flux and glacio-lacustrine sediments. Geogr Ann A 87:37–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalugin I, Daryin A, Smolyaninova L, Andreev A, Diekmann B, Khlystov O (2007) 800-year-long records of annual air temperature and precipitation over southern Siberia inferred from Teletskoye Lake sediments. Quat Res 67:400–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamenik C, van der Knaap WO, van Leeuwen JFN, Goslar T (2009) Pollen/climate calibration based on a near-annual peat sequence from the Swiss Alps. J Quat Sci 24:529–546

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman CA, Lamoureux SF, Kaufman DS (2011) Long-term river discharge and multidecadal climate variability inferred from varved sediments, southwest Alaska. Quat Res 76:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamoureux SF (2000) Five centuries of interannual sediment yield and rainfall-induced erosion in the Canadian High Arctic recorded in lacustrine varves. Water Resour Res 36:309–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamoureux SF (2001) Varve chronology techniques. In: Last WM, Smol JP (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments: basin analysis, coring, and chronological techniques. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 247–260

    Google Scholar 

  • Larocque-Tobler I, Grosjean M, Heiri O, Trachsel M, Kamenik C (2010) Thousand years of climate change reconstructed from chironomid subfossils preserved in varved lake Silvaplana, Engadine, Switzerland. Quat Sci Rev 29:1940–1949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larocque-Tobler I, Quinlan R, Stewart MM, Grosjean M (2011) Chironomid-inferred temperature changes of the last century in anoxic Seebergsee, Switzerland: assessment of two calibration methods. Quat Sci Rev 30:1770–1779

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leemann A, Niessen F (1994) Varve formation and the climatic record in an Alpine proglacial lake: calibrating annually laminated sediments against hydrological and meteorological data. Holocene 4:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard EM (1997) The relationship between glacial activity and sediment production: evidence from a 4450-year varve record of neoglacial sedimentation in Hector Lake, Alberta, Canada. J Paleolimnol 17:319–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mann ME, Zhang Z, Hughes MK, Bradley RS, Miller SK, Rutherford S, Ni F (2008) Proxy-based reconstructions of hemispheric and global surface temperature variations over the past two millennia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:13252–13257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKay NP, Kaufman DS, Michelutti N (2008) Biogenic silica concentration as a high-resolution, quantitative temperature proxy at Hallet Lake, south-central Alaska. Geophys Res Lett 35:L05709

    Google Scholar 

  • Menounos B, Clague JJ (2008) Reconstructing hydro-climatic events and glacier fluctuations over the past millennium from annually laminated sediments of Cheakamus Lake, southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. Quat Sci Rev 27:701–713

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer MC, Faber R, Spotl C (2006) The wingeol lamination tool: new software for rapid, semi-automated analysis of laminated climate archives. Holocene 16:753–761

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell TD, Jones PD (2005) An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. Int J Climatol 25:693–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore JJ, Hughen KA, Miller GH, Overpeck JT (2001) Little Ice Age recorded in summer temperature reconstruction from varved sediments of Donard Lake, Baffin Island, Canada. J Paleolimnol 25:503–517

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niessen F, Wick L, Bonani G, Chondrogianni C, Siegenthaler C (1992) Aquatic system response to climatic and human changes: productivity, bottom water oxygen status, and sapropel formation in Lake Lugano over the last 10,000 years. Aqua Sci 54:257–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niklaus M (1967) Geomorphologische und limnologische Untersuchungen am Öschinensee. PhD thesis. Kümmerly und Frey, Bern

  • Nussbaumer SU, Steinhilber F, Trachsel M, Breitenmoser P, Beer J, Blass A, Grosjean M, Hafner A, Holzhauser H, Wanner H, Zumbuehl HJ (2011) Alpine climate during the Holocene: a comparison between records of glaciers, lake sediments and solar activity. J Quat Sci 26:703–713

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ohlendorf C, Niessen F, Weissert H (1997) Glacial varve thickness and 127 years of instrumental climate data: a comparison. Clim Change 36:391–411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ojala AEK, Francus P, Zolitschka B, Besonen M, Lamoureux SF (2012) Characteristics of sedimentary varve chronologies—a review. Quat Sci Rev 43:45–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PAGES 2 k Consortium (2013) Continental-scale temperature variability during the last two millennia. Nat Geosci 6:339–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pauling A, Luterbacher J, Casty C, Wanner H (2006) Five hundred years of gridded high-resolution precipitation reconstructions over Europe and the connection to large-scale circulation. Clim Dynamic 26:387–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pfister C (1999) Wetternachhersage: 500 Jahre Klimavariationen und Naturkatastrophen (1496-1995). Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • Pienitz R, Lotter A (2009) Editorial: advances in paleolimnology. In: Pienitz R, Lotter A, Newman L, Kiefer T (eds) Advances in paleolimnology. PAGES News 17 (3): 89–136

  • Saunders KM, Grosjean M, Hodgson DA (2013) A 950 year temperature reconstruction from Duckhole Lake, southern Tasmania, Australia. Holocene 23:771–783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiefer E, Gilbert R (2008) Proglacial sediment trapping in recently formed Silt Lake, Upper Lillooet Valley, Coast Mountains, British Columbia. Earth Surf Proc Land 33:1542–1556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmocker-Fackel P, Naef F (2010) More frequent flooding? Changes in flood frequency in Switzerland since 1850. J Hydrol 381:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stewart M, Larocque-Tobler I, Grosjean M (2011) Quantitative inter-annual and decadal June–July–August temperature variability ca. 570 BC to AD 120 (Iron Age–Roman Period) reconstructed from the varved sediments of Lake Silvaplana. Switz J Quat Sci 26:491–501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suchy V, Frey M, Wolf M (1997) Vitrinite reflectance and shear-induced graphitization in orogenic belts: a case study from the Kandersteg area, Helvetic Alps, Switzerland. Int J Coal Geol 34:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiljander M, Saarnisto M, Ojala AEK, Saarinen T (2003) A 3,000-year palaeoenvironmental record from annually laminated sediment of Lake Korttajärvi, central Finland. Boreas 26:566–577

    Google Scholar 

  • Trachsel M, Eggenberger U, Grosjean M, Blass A, Sturm M (2008) Mineralogy-based quantitative precipitation and temperature reconstructions from annually laminated lake sediments (Swiss Alps) since AD 1580. Geophy Res Lett 35:L13707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trachsel M, Grosjean M, Schnyder D, Kamenik C, Rein B (2010) Scanning reflectance spectroscopy (380–730 nm): a novel method for quantitative high-resolution climate reconstructions from minerogenic lake sediments. J Paleolimnol 44:979–994

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trachsel M, Kamenik C, Grosjean M, McCarroll D, Moberg A, Brázdil R, Büntgen U, Dobrovolný P, Esper J, Frank DC, Friedrich M, Glaser R, Larocque-Tobler I, Nicolussi K, Riemann D (2012) Multi-archive summer temperature reconstruction for the European Alps, AD 1053–1996. Quat Sci Rev 46:66–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villalba R, Grosjean M, Kiefer T (2009) Long-term multi-proxy climate reconstructions and dynamics in South America (LOTRED-SA): state of the art and perspectives. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 281:175–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Gunten L, Grosjean M, Rein B, Urrutia R, Appleby P (2009) A quantitative high-resolution summer temperature reconstruction based on sedimentary pigments from Laguna Aculeo, central Chile, back to AD 850. Holocene 19:873–881

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Gunten L, Grosjean M, Kamenik C, Fujak M, Urrutia R (2012) Calibrating biogeochemical and physical climate proxies from non-varved lake sediments with meteorological data: methods and case studies. J Paleolimnol 47:583–600

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wanner H, Rickli R, Salvisberg E, Schmutz C, Schüepp M (1997) Global climate change and variability and its influence on Alpine climate—concepts and observations. Theor Appl Clim 58:221–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zolitschka B (1996) High resolution lacustrine sediments and their potential for palaeoclimatic reconstruction. In: Jones PD, Bradley RS, Jouzel J (eds) Climatic variations and forcing mechanisms of the last 2000 years. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp 453–478

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zolitschka B (2007) Varved lake sediments. In: Elias SA (ed) Encyclopedia of quaternary science. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 3105–3114

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Mr Hirschi for granting access to Lake Oeschinen, Richard Niederreiter for help with the freeze coring, and Urs Eggenberger (Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Bern) for assistance with XRD. The help and expertise of Samuel Hagnauer and Daniela Fischer was particularly essential from the field to the lab. Thanks to Mathias Trachsel and Christian Kamenik for statistical discussions, and Krystyna Saunders for comments on this manuscript. This work is funded through the Swiss National Science Foundation 200020-134945.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Benjamin Amann & Martin Grosjean

  2. MeteoSwiss, Krähbühlstrasse 58, Zurich, Switzerland

    Fabian Mauchle

  3. Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Erlachstrasse 9a T3, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Benjamin Amann

Authors
  1. Benjamin Amann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fabian Mauchle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Martin Grosjean
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benjamin Amann.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Amann, B., Mauchle, F. & Grosjean, M. Quantitative high-resolution warm season rainfall recorded in varved sediments of Lake Oeschinen, northern Swiss Alps: calibration and validation AD 1901–2008. J Paleolimnol 51, 375–391 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9761-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9761-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation