Holocene winter climate variability in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Among abundant reconstructions of Holocene climate in Europe, only a handful has addressed winter conditions, and most of these are restricted in length and/or resolution. Here we present a record of late autumn through early winter air temperature and moisture source changes in East-Central Europe for the Holocene, based on stable isotopic analysis of an ice core recovered from a cave in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains. During the past 10,000 years, reconstructed temperature changes followed insolation, with a minimum in the early Holocene, followed by gradual and continuous increase towards the mid-to-late-Holocene peak (between 4-2 kcal BP), and finally by a decrease after 0.8 kcal BP towards a minimum during the Little Ice Age (AD 1300–1850). Reconstructed early Holocene atmospheric circulation patterns were similar to those characteristics of the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), while in the late Holocene they resembled those prevailing in the positive NAO phase. The transition between the two regimes occurred abruptly at around 4.7 kcal BP. Remarkably, the widespread cooling at 8.2 kcal BP is not seen very well as a temperature change, but as a shift in moisture source, suggesting weaker westerlies and increased Mediterranean cyclones penetrating northward at this time.

The 4.2 ka BP Event in the Mediterranean region: an overview

“…This phase is marked by a change in the d excess in the ice in the Scȃrişoara Ice Cave (Carpathian Mountains; Fig. 9; Perşoiu et al, 2017), suggesting a change in the arrival of cyclones sourced from the Mediterranean region. The dust record in Sidi Ali Lake (Fig.…”

“…8c and 10 seems to find some similarity with the reconstruction proposed by Dermody et al (2012) during Roman time. According to Der- (Berger and Loutre, 1991); NAO index (Olsen et al, 2011); storm activity in the Gulf of Lion (Sabatier et al, 2012); Renella Cave ; Mohos peat dust flux (Longman et al, 2017); Scȃrişoara Ice Cave, d excess in the ice cave (Perşoiu et al, 2017); probability flood frequency from north Tunisia (Zielhofer and Faust, 2008); Sidi Ali dust flux (Zielhofer et al, 2017b); clastic input at Petit Lac (Brisset et al, 2013); Gemini Lake July temperature (Northern Apennines) (Samartin et al, 2017); Alìmini Pìccolo arboreal pollen (AP %) record (Di Rita and Magri, 2009); Calderone glacier expansion (Zanchetta et al, 2012a); Qarun Lake (Marks et al, 2018). Figure 10.…”

Holocene hydro-climatic variability in the Mediterranean: A synthetic multi-proxy reconstruction

“…The position and strength of the North Atlantic storm track plays an important role in controlling the amount of precipitation received in large parts of Europe (Hawcroft et al, 2012). Long-term changes in the strength and position of the North Atlantic storm track have been found on glacial and interglacial time scales as well as during the current interglacial, primarily relating to changes in the configuration of ice-sheets and insolation during the course of the Holocene (Brayshaw et al, 2010;Li and Battisti, 2008;Orme et al, 2016Orme et al, , 2017Perșoiu et al, 2017).…”

Kinetic processes and stable isotopes in cave dripwaters as indicators of winter severity

“…We use δ 2 H and δ 18 O from precipitation and cave dripping water in the context of karst systems and focus on the processes by which climate signals in stable isotopes are transferred from the atmosphere through the epikarst into cave environments (Mattey et al, ; McDermott, Schwarcz, & Rowe, ). This study addresses the following goals: firstly, on a global scale, the vast majority of climate proxies are registering either summer climatic conditions (mainly biological proxies) or annual ones, with limited information existing on past winter climate changes (Perșoiu et al, ). Knowledge of these would greatly improve our understanding of past climate changes, as well as the ability to forecast future ones, and therefore we focus on isotopic changes in cave dripwaters that occur during the winter season.…”