Holocene lake-level fluctuations in Lake Seedorf, southern Swiss plateau

Holocene lake-level fluctuations in lake Seedorf are reconstructed using sediment and plant macrofossil analyses. A pattern of palaeohydrological changes from ca 10 000 to 2000 BP is established. Major increases in lake level occurred at ca 8800-8100, 6700-6200, 4800-4300 and 2700-2200 BP, and a major lake-level lowering developed at ca 6000 BP. The palaeohydrological Seedorf record presents strong similarities with other palaeoclimatic records from (1) central Europe based on lake-level fluctuations, variations in river discharge, glacier advances and tree-limit oscillations, and (2) Greenland based on GISP2 glaciochemical series. Thus, the palaeohydrological changes at Seedorf support both the concepts of a climatic complexity and of a coupled cryosphere-atmosphere system around the North Atlantic during the whole Holocene period.