Paleoclimate in continental northwestern Europe during the  Eemian and Early-Weichselian (125–97 ka): insights from a  Belgian speleothem

Vansteenberge, Stef; Verheyden, Sophie; Cheng, Hai; Edwards, Lawrence R.; Keppens, Eddy; Claeys, Philippe

doi:10.5194/cp-2016-15

Cited by 8 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(88 reference statements)

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“…Pollen zones are shown for Central Germany 41 . i Speleothem stable isotope data underlying the chronology for Sokli, including δ 18 O data for SCH-5 and HÖL-10 speleothems from the Northern Alps 28 and the TKS series from the Entrische Kirche cave in the Eastern Alps 46 , as well as δ 13 C data for the Han-9 speleothem from Belgium 29 . The cross and an error bar indicate the age and associated 2σ uncertainty for the onset of speleothem growth at Korallgrottan, northern Sweden …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abrupt high-latitude climate events and decoupled seasonal trends during the Eemian

et al. 2018

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The Eemian (the Last Interglacial; ca. 129–116 thousand years ago) presents a testbed for assessing environmental responses and climate feedbacks under warmer-than-present boundary conditions. However, climate syntheses for the Eemian remain hampered by lack of data from the high-latitude land areas, masking the climate response and feedbacks in the Arctic. Here we present a high-resolution (sub-centennial) record of Eemian palaeoclimate from northern Finland, with multi-model reconstructions for July and January air temperature. In contrast with the mid-latitudes of Europe, our data show decoupled seasonal trends with falling July and rising January temperatures over the Eemian, due to orbital and oceanic forcings. This leads to an oceanic Late-Eemian climate, consistent with an earlier hypothesis of glacial inception in Europe. The interglacial is further intersected by two strong cooling and drying events. These abrupt events parallel shifts in marine proxy data, linked to disturbances in the North Atlantic oceanic circulation regime.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abrupt high-latitude climate events and decoupled seasonal trends during the Eemian

et al. 2018

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“…The high-latitude Scandinavian caves (Søylegrotta [41], Okshola [59], Labyrintgrottan [61], Korallgrottan [77] and Larshullet [62]) show the same reversed δ 18 O-temperature relationship, corroborated by temperature calibration studies [5,41], and are also explained by seasonally selective infiltration during snowmelt [59,61]. Only three sites at lower altitudes report a dominant temperature effect on δ 18 Ospel (Han-sur-Lesse [56], Clamouse [73,80], and Crag [73]).…”

Section: Controls On δ 18 Ospelmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Changes in soil and vegetation activity are another mechanism influencing speleothem growth, as soil pCO2 drives carbonate dissolution in the karst. Examples for such sites sensitive to changes in soil pCO2 are Villars Cave in France, where cold phases during the last glacial are reflected by hiatuses in stalagmite Vil-stm9 [46], and Han-sur-Lesse Cave in Belgium, where stalagmite Han-9 stops growing after a period of drastic vegetation changes (shift to a more grass-dominated vegetation) and aridification synchronous with Greenland stadial 26 [56]. Milder stadial/glacial climate conditions at lower latitudes (e.g., Southern Italy and Southern Spain) appear to have allowed speleothem deposition at some sites (A. Columbu, personal communication), but these regions have been scarcely targeted by researchers so far (Figure 1).…”

Section: Climate Controls On Speleothem Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that TKS is shown on a different y-axis to ease visual comparison. C -Records from other parts of Western Europe (colour coded): SESO -Stalagmite SE09-6 from Seso Cave, Spain [79], PIN -Stalagmite Candela from El Pindal Cave, Spain [68,158], CHAU -Stalagmite Chau-stm6 from Chauvet Cave, France [48], VIL -Stalagmites Vil-stm9 and Vil-stm27 from Villars Cave, France [46,47], HAN -Stalagmite Han-9 from Han-sur-Lesse Cave, Belgium [56], BMS -Stalagmite BMS1 from Bue Marino Cave, Italy [72]. D -Chronological uncertainty of the records: speleothem U-Th ages are shown in colour coded dots.…”

Section: Last Glacial Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Potential of Speleothems from Western Europe as Recorders of Regional Climate: a Critical Assessment of the SISAL Database

Lechleitner¹,

Amirnezhad-Mozhdehi²,

Columbu³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Western Europe is the region with the highest density of published speleothem δ18O (δ18Ospel) records worldwide. Here we review these records in light of the recent publication of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database [1]. We investigate how representative the spatial and temporal distribution of the available records is for climate in Western Europe, and review potential sites and strategies for future studies. We show that spatial trends in precipitation δ18O are mirrored in the speleothems, providing means to better constrain the factors influencing δ18Ospel at a specific location. Coherent regional δ18Ospel trends are found over stadial-interstadial transitions of the last glacial, especially in high altitude Alpine records. Over the Holocene, regional trends are less clearly expressed, due to lower signal-to-noise ratios in δ18Ospel, but can potentially be extracted with the use of statistical methods. Overall, this first assessment highlights the potential of the European region for speleothem palaeoclimate reconstruction, while underpinning the importance of knowledge of local factors for a correct interpretation of δ18Ospel.

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“…A number of speleothem records from central Europe and the Mediterranean that cover parts of, or the full, LIG have been published over the years [2,[31][32][33][34][35]37,[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]. Here, we utilize some of these records to compare and put the carbon and oxygen isotope compositions and growth rate information from Korallgrottan in a broader paleoclimatic context.…”

Section: Comparison With Speleothem Records From Other Parts Of Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Last Interglacial Climate in Northern Sweden—Insights from a Speleothem Record

et al. 2019

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Continental records with absolute dates of the timing and progression of climatic conditions during the Last Interglacial (LIG) from northern Europe are rare. Speleothems from northern Europe have a large potential as archives for LIG environmental conditions since they were formed in sheltered environments and may be preserved beneath ice sheets. Here, we present δ13C and δ18O values from speleothem Kf-21, from Korallgrottan in Jämtland (northwest Sweden). Kf-21 is dated with five MC-ICPMS U-Th dates with errors smaller than ~1 ka. Kf-21 started forming at ~130.2 ka and the main growth phase with relatively constant growth rates lasted from 127.3 ka to 124.4 ka, after which calcite formation ceased. Both δ13C and δ18O show rapid shifts but also trends, with a range of values within their Holocene counterparts from Korallgrottan. Our results indicate an early onset of the LIG in northern Europe with ice-free conditions at ~130 ka. Higher growth rates combined with more negative δ18O values between ~127.3 and 126.8 ka, interpreted here as warmer and more humid conditions, as well as indications of a millennial-scale cold spell centered at 126.2 ka, resemble findings from speleothem records from other parts of Europe, highlighting that these were regional scale climatic patterns.

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Paleoclimate in continental northwestern Europe during the Eemian and Early-Weichselian (125–97 ka): insights from a Belgian speleothem

Cited by 8 publications

References 44 publications

Abrupt high-latitude climate events and decoupled seasonal trends during the Eemian

Abrupt high-latitude climate events and decoupled seasonal trends during the Eemian

The Potential of Speleothems from Western Europe as Recorders of Regional Climate: a Critical Assessment of the SISAL Database

Last Interglacial Climate in Northern Sweden—Insights from a Speleothem Record

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