The paleolimnological analysis of sediments from high mountain lake Nizne Terianske pleso in the high Tatras (Slovakia)

Sedimentological climate proxies and a 200-year long climate record, reconstructed using a data-set of European-wide meteorological data, have been compared at the high mountain lake Niznee Terianske pleso in the High Tatras, Slovakia. Diatoms, chrysophyte stomatocysts, chironomids, plant pigments and spheroidal carbonaceous particles ( SCPs) were analysed as well as sediment lithostratigraphic parameters. Using a radiometric approach the sediment core was dated and a depth of 4.6 cm was found to correspond to 1852 AD. The sediment accumulation rate ( 0.0034 g.cm(-2).yr(-1)) was one of the lowest identified in the European mountain lake project, MOLAR. Despite this slow accumulation rate a remarkably coherent lithological and stratigraphic record has been recovered. The sediments of this remote mountain site, largely free from the effects of direct human impact, have been found to display a wealth of variability over the last 200 years.