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Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 9–12052
regulation. Thus, the way the prehistoric societies have selected andhunted their preys brings significant data to the environmental meaning oftheir predation and to the environmental conditions. In order to test suchecological framework, the Upper Pleistocene Paris Basin looks to beinteresting for several reasons. Firstly, the regional approach offers to fixthe well-known physical environment parameter, and this way, allowsfocusing on the impact of another crucial factor, climate fluctuations.Secondly, since several cultural entities have been recorded during theUpper Pleistocene in the region, the continuity or discontinuity in preychoices appears crucial from an evolutionary point of view. Thirdly, recentadvances realized in the understanding of hunting practices of Magdale-nians and Azilians (around 13 000-12 000 BP) show how complex couldhave been the human-large mammals interactions.
ECOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO LATE-GLACIAL CLIMATE CHANGES INNORTHERN AND WESTERN NORWAY
Hilary H. Birks. University of Bergen, NorwayE-mail address: [email protected]
Chironomids react swiftly to temperature changes, both as larvae in lakesand as adults. The relationship of chironomids to mean July air tempera-ture has been well established and can be used with confidence toreconstruct past late-glacial temperatures in lake-sediment sequences.Plants also react to temperature changes. Late-glacial plant macrofossilassemblages can be used to demonstrate local presence of species and toreconstruct vegetation changes through assemblage analogy. To investi-gate the speed of plant responses to climate changes, detailed late-glacialchironomid and plant macrofossil records are needed from the samesediment corewith good chronological control. Using chironomid-inferredtemperatures as a base-line for climate changes, the responses of plantsand vegetation, both terrestrial and aquatic, can be assessed. How closelydo plant responses follow the temperature changes? If they lag, by howmuch? Do different vegetation types show different responses? Doesmigration play a role? We shall present comparisons from three late-glacial sites from northern and western Norway.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF QUANTITATIVE CLIMATERECONSTRUCTIONS BASED ON LATE-QUATERNARY BIOLOGICALPROXIES
H. John B. Birks. Department of Biology and Bjerknes Centre for Climate,NorwayE-mail address: [email protected]
The importance of reconstructing past environments quantitatively inpalaeoecology is reviewed by showing that many ecological questionsasked of palaeoecological data commonly involve the reconstruction ofpast environment. Three basic approaches to reconstructing past climatefrom palaeoecological data are outlined and discussed in terms of theirassumptions, strengths, and weaknesses. These approaches are the indi-cator-species approach involving bioclimate-envelope modelling; theassemblage approach involving modern analogue techniques andresponse surfaces; and the multivariate calibration-function approach.Topics common to all approaches are reviewed - presentation and inter-pretation, evaluation and validation, comparison, uncertainties, andgeneral limitations of climate reconstructions. Challenges and possiblefuture developments are presented and the potential future role ofquantitative climate reconstructions in palaeoecology is summarised.
BEHAVIOURAL VARIABILITY IN OLDOWAN HOMININS: THE CASE FROMKANJERA SOUTH, KENYA
Laura C. Bishop. Liverpool John Moores University, United KingdomE-mail address: [email protected]
Recent research at Kanjera South, Kenya shows that by about 2 Ma,hominins had a considerable armoury of behavioural capabilities. The sitewas formed in low energy settings and, over 169m2 of excavations, the KS-2 stratum has yielded 2190 fossils and 2471 artifacts. Both the weatheringstages of the fossil remains and the limited development of pedogenic
features over the 1.5m of KS-2 deposits suggest that the site was formedover decades or centuries. Studies of biostratigraphy and palaeomagnetismsuggest an age of around 2 Ma for the hominin activities in Bed KS-2.Multiproxy palaeoenvironmental reconstruction shows that the KanjeraSouth palaeohabitat was predominantly open grassland during this periodof hominin occupation. Taphonomic studies of the faunal remains indicatethat hominins were the primary cause of their deposition. The faunalremains predominantly derive from juvenile and/or small individualungulates. Breakage patterns and cut- and toothmark studies show thathominins had early access to these animals. Oldowan artifacts weremanufactured from both local and more distant raw material sources.Differential reduction and retouch strategies show that hominins selectedand transported certain types of stone over great distances, based on theirmechanical properties. Hominins employed a technological strategy thatconserved high quality raw materials that were transported the greatestdistances.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE PALEOSEISMICITY OF THE EASTERN BALTIC SEAREGION
Albertas Bitinas. Coastal Research and Planning Institute, Klaipeda ,LithuaniaE-mail address: [email protected]
The historical seismic activity in the Eastern Baltic Sea region is signifi-cantly lower comparing with seismicity of Fennoscandian shield. Still,several tens (w 40) of small scale seismic events with magnitudes up to4.8; with the earthquakes in Kaliningrad District (Russia) in year 2004(with maximal magnitude up to 5) have been recorded in the area. Also,assumptions about tsunami event in 1779 at the Baltic Sea coast nearTrzebiatów (Poland) have been implied. All these facts evidence somerecent seismic activity of the Eastern Baltic Sea region. Rather highseismic activity of Fennoscandian shield and adjacent Baltic Sea territo-ries during the Late Glacial and Holocene (last 13 000 years) is welldocumented by numerous paleoseismic investigations and correspondingpublications, whereas the paleoseismological studies of the Baltic Sea andwider Eastern Baltic Sea Region has not been carried out up till now andno seismites evidencing paleoseismicity in the region have been recorded.However, the recent analysis of the Quaternary deposits of the EasternBaltic Sea region in the background of the state-of-the-art of the modernpaleoseismology, resulted in new assumptions of the paleoseismicityof the region: several geological structures, early interpreted as cry-oturbations, glaciotectonic features or so-called water-escape structures,shows characteristics of the liquefaction-inducted sediment deforma-tions. Such a structures have been distinguished in a several localities inEstonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. Majority of these seismites-likestructures were formed during the Late Glacial and Holocene times;several of them are related to Middle Pleistocene, Eemian Interglacial andEarly Weichselian strata.
A PHENOMENON OF “DUNE TECTONICS”: CURONIAN SPIT,SOUTHEASTERN BALTIC SEA COAST
Albertas Bitinas. Coastal Research and Planning Institute, Klaipeda ,LithuaniaE-mail address: [email protected]
The exposures of so-called “lagoon marl” represented by composite set oforganic sediments such as clayey gyttja and organic-rich clay, are commonalong the lagoon coast of the Curonian Spit, Lithuania. An integratedinvestigation of lagoon marl and associated coastal sediments was con-ducted during 2005-2010 and included: ground-penetrating radar (GPR)imaging, deep boreholes, paleoecological analyses (pollen, diatoms, andmollusks), radiocarbon (bulk and AMS) dating, and examination of phys-ical-mechanical properties of the marl. The outcrops of lagoon marl reachup to 4-5 m in height and reflect a unique geological process, termed here“dune tectonics” – a phenomenon of extrusion of the marl from below thewater table through loading of by massive sand dunes. An integrated studyof the marl sequence supports its formation in a freshwater lagoon duringthe Holocene Litorina Sea stage. In boreholes, the top of the in situmarl lies6.8-8.9 m belowmean sea level, and the thickness varies from 5.4 to 9.0 m.
