The plant-macrofossil record of past lake-level changes

Plant-macrofossil analysis is one of the most useful biostratigraphical methods for the reconstruction of former lake-level changes. The distribution of submerged, floating-leaved and emergent lake-shore vegetation is mainly dependant on water depth, but water chemistry and nutrient status must also be taken into account when interpreting water-level changes. Lake-level studies should be based on the investigation of several littoral cores along a transect perpendicular to the lake-shore. Multiple cores are essential for separating genuine lake-level changes from other processes influencing the plant-macrofossil record. Physical analyses of sediment stratigraphy provide important additional information to the plant-fossil record, because natural infilling processes and erosion from the catchment must be distinguished from climatic events causing a change in the water level. Here we review several important concepts, including suitability of lakes for lake-level study, the degree of detail required in the analysis, and macrofossil records of lake-level changes, and illustrate those concepts by examples from southern Sweden and Minnesota. We discuss how to reconcile alternative hypotheses for the stratigraphic changes seen in the macrofossil assemblages.