10 million years of interaction between terrestrial plant biodiversity and climate in the early Paleogene of the Helmstedt Mining District
Final Report Abstract
The more than 200 m thick Paleogene succession of the former Helmstedt Lignite Mining District in northern Germany was situated in an estuary at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea. It includes the late Paleocene to lower Eocene Schöningen Formation and the middle Eocene Helmstedt Formation with about 13 lignite seams of up to 15 m thickness. The succession is covering the entire Paleogene greenhouse phase and its gentle demise almost continuously from the latest Paleocene to the middle Eocene, including the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) and its steady but slow decline, the transition to the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) and some short-term warming events such as, e.g., the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Due to the interaction between changes in sea level, salt withdrawal in the underground and climate-related changes in runoff from the hinterland the area was subject to frequent changes between marine and terrestrial conditions, including peat formation. This nearly continuous section allows to trace the effects of long-term changes and short-term perturbations of the climate on the diversity and composition of plant communities across 10 million years during the last natural greenhouse phase by making use of pollen and spores as proxies and applying modern multivariate and biodiversity statistics to an extraordinary section.
Publications
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Short- and long-term changes of plant diversity during the Paleogene greenhouse in Central Europe. 10th European Palaeobotany-Palynology Conference, Dublin, Abstract Book: 114.
Lenz, O.K, Wilde, V. & Riegel, W.
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Palaeoenvironmental response of mid-latitudinal wetlands to PETM climate change (Schöningen lignite deposits, Germany). Copernicus GmbH.
Methner, Katharina; Lenz, Olaf; Riegel, Walter; Wilde, Volker & Mulch, Andreas
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Paleoenvironmental response of midlatitudinal wetlands to Paleocene–early Eocene climate change (Schöningen lignite deposits, Germany). Climate of the Past, 15(5), 1741-1755.
Methner, Katharina; Lenz, Olaf; Riegel, Walter; Wilde, Volker & Mulch, Andreas
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The Early Eocene of Schöningen - Testing effects of climate variations on coastal wetlands under greenhouse conditions. GeoMünster 2019 "Earth! Past, Present, Future", Book of abstracts:80.
Lenz, O.K., Wilde, V. & Riegel, W.
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Greenhouse conditions in lower Eocene coastal wetlands? – Lessons from Schöningen, Northern Germany.
Lenz, Olaf K.; Riegel, Walter & Wilde, Volker
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Nypapollen diversity in middle Eocene mangroves at the edge of the southern Proto-North Sea (Helmstedt, northern Germany) – a statistical approach. Grana, 60(2), 97-118.
Lenz, Olaf; Diekmeier, Sarah & Wilde, Volker
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A myricaceous male inflorescence with pollen in situ from the middle Eocene of Europe. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 101(4), 873-883.
Wilde, Volker; Frankenhäuser, Herbert & Lenz, Olaf Klaus
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Carbon isotope excursions in a Paleocene to early Eocene lignite bearing succession at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea (Schöningen, Germany). Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Stabile Isotope e. V., ASI, Darmstadt, Book of Abstracts: 27.
Lenz, O.K., Montag, M., Wilde, V., Methner, K., Riegel, W. & Mulch, A.
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Das Paläogen im Helmstedter Revier: Ein Forschungsthema im Geopark Harz. Braunschweiger Land. Ostfalen, in: Wechselbeziehun gen zwischen Mensch und Umwelt – Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft im Braun schweiger Land und seinem Umfeld, edited by: Wilde, V., Zellmer, H., Hillgruber, F., and Serangeli, J., Gaussiana, 1, 28–33
Wilde, V., Riegel, W. & Lenz, O. K.
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Early Eocene carbon isotope excursions in a lignite bearing succession at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea (Schöningen, Germany). Copernicus GmbH.
Lenz, Olaf K.; Montag, Mara; Wilde, Volker; Methner, Katharina; Riegel, Walter & Mulch, Andreas
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Greenhouse conditions in lower Eocene coastal wetlands?—Lessons from Schöningen, Northern Germany. PLOS ONE, 16(1), e0232861.
Lenz, Olaf K.; Riegel, Walter & Wilde, Volker
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Impacts of long- and short-term climate variations during the Paleogene greenhouse on a coastal wetland in Northern Germany. Meeting of the Geological Society: Climate change in the Geological Record. Book of abstracts: 24.
Lenz, O.K., Wilde, V. & Riegel, W.
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The influence of sea-level changes on Eocene coastal wetlands during greenhouse conditions at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea in Northern Germany. Geo Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe.
Lenz, O.K, Wilde, V. & Riegel, W.
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Early Eocene carbon isotope excursions in a lignite-bearing succession at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea (Schöningen, Germany). Climate of the Past, 18(10), 2231-2254.
Lenz, Olaf Klaus; Montag, Mara; Wilde, Volker; Methner, Katharina; Riegel, Walter & Mulch, Andreas
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Fluctuation in the coastal wetland vegetation at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea and Paleogene thermal events. 12th International Conference on Climatic and Biotic Events of the Paleogene (CBEP12), Bremen.
Lenz, O.K., Wilde, V., Riegel, W. & Mulch, A.
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The Helmstedt Lignite Mining District in Northern Germany – An important archive for the Paleogene greenhouse. 21st International Sedimentological Congress, Bejing.
Lenz, O.K., Wilde, V., Riegel, W. & Mulch, A.
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The lower and middle Eocene of the Helmstedt Lignite Mining District, Northern Germany – climate and vegetation dynamics decoupled? 11th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference, Stockholm, Abstract, Program and Proceedings: 133.
Lenz, O.K., Riegel, W. & Wilde, V.
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High-resolution statistical palynology reveals climatic changes in coastal wetlands of the Early Eocene proto-North Sea. 4th International Congress on Stratigraphy (Strati 2023). Book of abstracts: 403.
Lenz, O.K., Wilde, V. & Riegel, W.
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Neue Erkenntnisse zur Stratigraphie und Paläoökologie des Paläogen im Helmstedter Braunkohlenrevier, Freib. Forsch.-H., C 561, 57– 66
Lenz, O.K., Wilde, V. & Riegel, W.
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Sphagnoid spores as tracers of environmental and climatic changes in peatland habitats of the early Eocene. International Journal of Earth Sciences, 113(8), 1903-1923.
Riegel, Walter; Lenz, Olaf K. & Wilde, Volker
