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    Eemian landscape response to climatic shifts and evidence for northerly Neanderthal occupation at a palaeolake margin in northern Germany
    (New York, NY [u.a.] : Wiley, 2021-9-14) Hein, Michael; Urban, Brigitte; Tanner, David Colin; Buness, Anton Hermann; Tucci, Mario; Hoelzmann, Philipp; Dietel, Sabine; Kaniecki, Marie; Schultz, Jonathan; Kasper, Thomas; Suchodoletz, Hans von; Schwalb, Antje; Weiss, Marcel; Lauer, Tobias
    The prevailing view suggests that the Eemian interglacial on the European Plain was characterized by largely negligible geomorphic activity beyond the coastal areas. However, systematic geomorphological studies are sparse. Here we present a detailed reconstruction of Eemian to Early Weichselian landscape evolution in the vicinity of a small fingerlake on the northern margin of the Salzwedel Palaeolake in Lower Saxony (Germany). We apply a combination of seismics, sediment coring, pollen analysis and luminescence dating on a complex sequence of colluvial, paludal and lacustrine sediments. Results suggest two pronounced phases of geomorphic activity, directly before the onset and at the end of the Eemian period, with an intermediate period of pronounced landscape stability. The dynamic phases were largely driven by incomplete vegetation cover, but likely accentuated by fluvial incision in the neighbouring Elbe Valley. Furthermore, we discovered Neanderthal occupation at the lakeshore during Eemian pollen zone (PZ) E IV, which is chronologically in line with other known Eemian sites of central Europe. Our highly-resolved spatio-temporal data substantially contribute to the understanding of climate-induced geomorphic processes throughout and directly after the last interglacial period. It helps unraveling the landscape dynamics between the coastal areas to the north and the loess belt to the south.
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    Optically stimulated luminescence dating of young fluvial deposits of the Middle Elbe River Flood Plains using different age models
    (Warsaw : De Gruyter, 2014) Kunz, Alexander; Pflanz, Dorthe; Weniger, Tobias; Urban, Brigitte; Krüger, Frank; Chen, Yue-Gau
    In the last few decades optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating has become an im-portant tool in geochronological studies. The great advantage of the method, i.e. dating the deposi-tional age of sediments directly, can be impaired by incomplete bleaching of grains. This can result in a scattered distribution of equivalent doses (DE), leading to incorrect estimation of the depositional age. Thoroughly tested protocols as well as good data analysis with adequate statistical methods are important to overcome this problem. In this study, samples from young fluvial sand and flood plain deposits from the Elbe River in northern Germany were investigated to compare its depositional ages from different age models with well-known historical dates. Coarse grain quartz (100-200 μm and 150-250 μm) and polymineral fine grains (4-11 μm) were dated using the single aliquot regenerative (SAR) dose protocol. The paleodose (DP) was calculated from the DE data set using different ap-proaches. Results were compared with the development of the Elbe River, which is well-documented by historical records and maps covering the last 1,000 years. Depending on the statistical approach it can be demonstrated that depositional ages significantly differ from the most likely depositional age. For the investigated coarse grain quartz samples all ages calculated from the MAM-3UL, including their uncertainties, are within the historical documented age. Results of the polymineral fine grain samples are overestimating the historically documented depositional age, indicating undetectable in-complete bleaching. This study shows the importance of using an adequate statistical approach to cal-culate reliable OSL ages from fluvial sediments. © 2013 Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland. All rights reserved.