A varved lake sediment record of the Be-10 solar activity proxy for the Lateglacial-Holocene transition

摘要

Solar modulated variations in cosmogenic radionuclide production provide both information on past changes in the activity of the Sun and a global synchronization tool. However, to date the use of cosmogenic radionuclides for these applications is almost exclusively based on Be-10 records from ice cores and C-14 time-series from tree rings, all including archive-specific limitations. We present the first Be-10 record from annually laminated (varved) lake sediments for the Lateglacial-Holocene transition from Meerfelder Maar. We quantify environmental influences on the catchment and, consequently, Be-10 deposition using a new approach based on regression analyses between our Be-10 record and environmental proxy time-series from the same archive. Our analyses suggest that environmental influences contribute to up to 37% of the variability in our Be-10 record, but cannot be the main explanation for major Be-10 excursions. Corrected for these environmental influences, our Be-10 record is interpreted to dominantly reflect changes in solar modulated cosmogenic radionuclide production. The preservation of a solar production signal in Be-10 from varved lake sediments highlights the largely unexplored potential of these archives for solar activity reconstruction, as global synchronization tool and, thus, for more robust paleoclimate studies. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.