A STRATIGRAPHIC STUDY OF A COASTAL SECTION THROUGH A LATE WEICHSELIAN KETTLE HOLE BASIN AT ÅLABODARNA, WESTERN SKÅNE, SWEDEN

A stratigraphic analysis of a small kettle hole basin in the cliffs at Ålabodarna, western Skåne, Sweden was completed in order to examine the vegetational development in an area that was deglaciated early in comparison with the rest of Scandinavia. The presence of the sediments in an open section rather than a core allowed for the examination of lateral variations in the sediments and provided an overview of the basin as a whole. The sedimentology and pollen stratigraphy of the section were investigated. Loss on ignition analyses revealed the organic and carbonate content of the sediments. From these investigations, correlations were attempted with pollen records from other sites in southern Sweden. A possible age-depth model for the basin was established based and radiocarbon dates and regional-local correlations.

Several climatic oscillations can be discerned within the Ålabodarna pollen record, and it may be possible to correlate some of these with the GRIP event stratigraphy outlined by Björck et al. (1998). For example, the GI-1b event, or the Gerzensee oscillation, may be represented in the Ålabodarna record by a brief decrease in the percentage of tree and shrub species and an increase in soil erosion, shown by increasing mineral matter, sometime after 11680 ±60 ¹⁴C years BP. This climatic event is also marked by the presence of gravel and boulders in the sediments from the surrounding till. Such evidence of sediment-gravity flows indicates that dead ice was present in the Ålabodarna area at least until the end of the GI-1b event. The results also show that Betula may have immigrated into the area shortly after 14,700 GRIP years BP, and Pinus may have arrived just after 12,900 GRIP years BP.