Late glacial climatic and environmental changes in eastern-central Europe: Correlation of multiple biotic and abiotic proxies from the Lake Švarcenberk, Czech Republic

•The biotic and abiotic proxies reacted quasi-synchronously to environmental changes.•Clear relationship between vegetation cover, soil development and erosion was found.•The short-term intra-Alleröd cool event was correlated with Gerzensee oscillation.•The early half of the Younger Dryas was rather humid, whereas the later half was dry.•The study area was climatically connected with the Atlantic region.

Thick lake sediments discovered in the southern part of the Czech Republic provide a high-resolution archive for detailed study of paleoenvironmental changes during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene in eastern-central Europe. Until recently, no similar records were available for this important region in the transition from oceanic to continental macro-climatic settings. Using a multi-proxy approach that combines sedimentological, pollen-analytical, paleozoological (Chironomids), geochemical and mineral-magnetic methods we demonstrate that major climatic events of the Late Glacial can be correlated with Atlantic rather than continental regimes as reported in paleoclimatic literature for the area of the interest. The sensitivity of applied biological and abiological techniques to climatically-driven processes allows trans-regional comparisons and enables us to discuss the pattern of geographic variation in these processes. We are able to establish a clear relationship between vegetation cover, soil development and erosional processes. A short-term intra-Alleröd cool event has been correlated with the Gerzensee oscillation. Proxy evidence suggests that the early half of the Younger Dryas was rather humid, whereas the latter half was dry and had significant impact on vegetation, sedimentary dynamics and lake level status during the YD/Preboreal transition.