A high‐resolution speleothem proxy record of the Late Glacial in the European Alps: extending the NALPS19 record until the beginning of the Holocene

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Li, Hanying, Spötl, Christoph, Cheng, Hai
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2020
• Subjects: Greenland; Greenland ice core; Greenland Ice core Project; Greenland ice cores; ice core; NGRIP; North Greenland; North Greenland Ice Core Project
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3255; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.3255; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/jqs.3255

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that speleothems from the northern rim of the European Alps captured submillennial‐scale climate change during the last glacial period with exceptional sensitivity and resolution, mimicking Greenland ice‐core records. Here we extend this so‐called NALPS19 record across the Late Glacial using two stalagmites which grew continuously into the Holocene. Both specimens show the same high‐amplitude δ 18 O signal as Greenland ice cores down to decadal resolution. The start of the warming at the onset of the equivalent of Greenland Interstadial (GI) GI‐1e at 14.66 ± 0.18 ka agrees with the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP) (14.64 ± 0.28 ka) and comprised a temperature rise of about 5–6 °C. The transition from the equivalent of GI‐1a into the equivalent of Greenland Stadial (GS) GS‐1 (broadly equivalent to the Younger Dryas) commenced at 13.02 ± 0.13 ka which is consistent with NGRIP (12.80 ± 0.26 ka) within errors. The onset of the Holocene started at 11.78 ± 0.14 ka (11.65 ± 0.10 ka at NGRIP) and involved a warming of about 4–5 °C. In contrast to δ 18 O, δ 13 C values show no response to (sub)millennial climate shifts due to strong rock‐buffering and only record a long‐term trend of soil development starting with the rapid warming at 14.7 ka.