Solar and proxy-sensitivity imprints on paleohydrological records for the last millennium in west-central Europe

Abstract

This paper presents a lake-level record established for the last millennium at Lake Saint-Point in the French Jura Mountains. A comparison of this lake-level record with a solar irradiance record supports the hypothesis of a solar forcing of variations in the hydrological cycle linked to climatic oscillations over the last millennium in west-central Europe, with higher lake levels during the solar minimums of Oort (around AD 1060), Wolf (around AD 1320), Spörer (around AD 1450), Maunder (around AD 1690), and Dalton (around AD 1820). Further comparisons of the Saint-Point record with the fluctuations of the Great Aletsch Glacier (Swiss Alps) and a record of Rhône River floods from Lake Bourget (French Alps) give evidence of possible imprints of proxy sensitivity on reconstructed paleohydrological records. In particular, the Great Aletsch record shows an increasing glacier mass from AD 1350 to 1850, suggesting a cumulative effect of the Little Ice Age cooling and/or a possible reflection of a millennial-scale general cooling until the mid-19th century in the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast, the Saint-Point and Bourget records show a general trend toward a decrease in lake levels and in flood magnitude anti-correlated with generally increasing solar irradiance.

Mass-movement and flood-induced deposits in Lake Ledro, southern Alps, Italy: implications for Holocene palaeohydrology and natural hazards

“…10b) occurred between ca. AD 1600 and AD 1850 and matches the second phase of the well-documented Little Ice Age period (Chapron et al, 2002;Wanner et al, 2011;Magny et al, 2010). Furthermore, the ratio rAP/LCF (see Sect.…”

A multi-proxy, high-resolution record of peatland development and its drivers during the last millennium from the subalpine Swiss Alps

“…The wet phase reconstructed for ca. AD 1750e1825 coincides with other events indicative of increased wetness, including the Dalton minimum in solar irradiance (Bard et al, 2000), glacier advance in the Alps (Holzhauser et al, 2005), and lake-level change in Lake Saint Point in the French Jura Mts (Magny et al, 2010) and in Lake Le Bourget (Arnaud et al, 2005). A next wet phase reconstructed for AD 1920e1955 also coincides with glacier advance in the Alps (Holzhauser et al, 2005).…”

“…Several phases of reconstructed low DWT (wet peat surface) coincide with independent, large scale indications for cool and/or wet climate. The wet conditions reconstructed for the period around AD 1300 coincide with the Wolf solar minimum (AD 1280e1340; Wigley, 1988;Foukal, 1990) when climate change had impacts on natural systems in this part of Europe, such as the increasing trend of the Great Aletsch Glacier in the central Swiss Alps (Holzhauser et al, 2005), increasing lake levels of Lake Saint Point in the Jura Mountains (Magny et al, 2010), and the strikingly high titanium content in Lake Le Bourget in the north-western French Alps indicative of sedimentary input (Jacob et al, 2008). The wet phase reconstructed for ca.…”

Lake Bourget regional erosion patterns reconstruction reveals Holocene NW European Alps soil evolution and paleohydrology

“…However, one must also notice that each periods A2, A1 as well as the onset of A corresponds to a marked advance of the Great Aletsch glacier (Holzhauser et al, 2005) as well as marked higher lake level in the neighbouring Jura massif (Magny et al, 2010). It is hence possible that glacier advances that preceded the onset of the LIA sensu stricto and moreover the one of the LIA itself completely hided the effects of human impact, as the glacial erosion was dominating the regional erosion flux.…”