Holocene molluscan faunal history and environmental change at Kloster Mühle, Rheinland‐Pfalz, western Germany

Abstract

Abstract The Holocene molluscan succession presented here, from a tufa at Kloster Mühle, near Trier, is the most detailed yet published from the German Bundesland of Rheinland‐Pfalz. The base of the sequence, dated at 9720 ± 75 14 C yr BP, indicates that the early Holocene was characterised by a moist, open‐ground fauna dominated by Succinea / Oxyloma . The aquatic phase that follows is short lived, bracketed by statistically indistinguishable dates of 9530 ± 60 14 C yr BP (below) and 9695 ± 75 14 C yr BP (above). The establishment of woodland is indicated by the appearance of Aegopinella nitidula , Vertigo pusilla and especially Carychium tridentatum , which subsequently expands to account for over 40% of the total fauna. Deciduous forest optimum conditions, characterised by the occurrence of Platyla polita and Helicigona lapicida , become established at about 7405 ± 50 14 C yr BP. The radiocarbon age of 4384 ± 105 14 C yr BP obtained for the uppermost tufa horizon is much younger than expected, both on the basis of the molluscan fauna observed and the implied decline in the rate of sedimentation in the upper part of the deposit, and tufa formation probably ceased much earlier than this date suggests. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.