Lake Neusiedl, the largest steppe lake in Europe, is particularly sensitive to climate variations due to its extreme shallowness (z_max = 1.8 m) and low ratio of catchment to lake area (3.5 : 1). Changes in water budget, salinity and turbidity have key implications for the lake’s ecology and management. Here, we present a multi-proxy palaeolimnological reconstruction of the evolution of Lake Neusiedl since the end of its last complete desiccation (1865–1868), based on an undisturbed radiometrically dated core taken from the open water portion of the lake. Geochemical and biological (algal) proxies outline the succession of three major ecological stages since 1873 ± 16 yrs, with the first major changes appearing already in the 1930s as driven by climate related hydrological variability. Subfossil diatoms proved to be reliable for tracking long-term changes in the trophic conditions of Lake Neusiedl while diatom-inferred lake conductivity revealed to be unreliable due to a combination of lake environmental settings and the absence of a site-specific training set. Nonetheless, multivariate statistical analyses and comparisons with limnological data confirm a great potential of subfossil diatoms for revealing past ecological changes and tipping points of shallow lakes, as long as studies rely on a multi-proxy approach. In agreement with limnological surveys, the sediment record corroborates the high vulnerability of Lake Neusiedl, both in present and past times, towards climate-driven changes in water level and salinity, and allows the prediction, by analogy with the past, of future ecological changes in a context of global warming and increasing nutrient inputs from non-point sources.

新锡德尔湖是欧洲最大的草原湖泊，由于其极浅的 (z _max = 1.8 m) 且集水面积与湖泊面积的比率较低 (3.5:1)。水收支、盐度和浊度的变化对湖泊的生态和管理具有重要影响。在这里，我们基于取自该湖开放水域部分的未受干扰的放射性测年核心，对自上次完全干燥（1865-1868 年）结束以来 Neusiedl 湖的演变进行了多代理古湖泊学重建。地球化学和生物（藻类）代理概述了自 1873 年 ± 16 年以来三个主要生态阶段的连续性，第一次重大变化已在 1930 年代出现，这是由气候相关的水文变率驱动的。亚化石硅藻被证明对于跟踪新锡德尔湖营养条件的长期变化是可靠的，而由于湖泊环境设置和缺乏特定地点的训练集，硅藻推断的湖泊电导率显示不可靠。尽管如此，只要研究依赖于多代理方法，多变量统计分析和与湖沼学数据的比较证实了亚化石硅藻在揭示过去生态变化和浅湖临界点方面的巨大潜力。与湖泊学调查一致，沉积物记录证实了新锡德尔湖在现在和过去对气候驱动的水位和盐度变化的高度脆弱性，并允许通过与过去类比的预测，