European Climatic Response to Millennial-Scale Changes in the Atmosphere–Ocean System during the Last Glacial Period

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Authors: Goñi, Marı́a Fernanda Sánchez, Turon, Jean-Louis, Eynaud, Frédérique, Gendreau, Sandra
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2000
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Earth-Surface Processes; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Greenland; Greenland ice cores; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/qres.2000.2176; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0033589400921768?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0033589400921768?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S003358940002648X

Pollen, foraminifer, dinocyst, and coarse lithic high-resolution analyses and δ 18 O measurements have been carried out for the last-glacial section of marine core MD95-2042 located near the southwestern margin of the Iberian Peninsula. The pollen data indicate a high frequency of vegetational changes on the adjacent continent during this period, suggesting a climatic variability very similar to that of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles recorded by the Greenland ice cores. The detailed direct correlation of the terrestrial and marine proxy data from core MD95-2042 indicates a three-phase pattern of Heinrich events in land and ocean environments. The first and last phases of the H5 and H4 events are characterized by a mild and humid climate in southwestern Europe, probably associated with the European origin of the ice-rafted detritus. The middle phase exhibits a cold and dry climate in Iberia linked with the maximum input of ice-rafted detritus. This phase seems to correspond with the Laurentide ice-sheet surges. Between the Heinrich events, several cold and dry periods on land are correlated with stades of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles. The impact of the Dansgaard-Oeschger stades in southwestern Europe seems to be preferentially connected to the cold winter air masses reaching this mid-latitude region.