Enhanced climate instability in the North Atlantic and southern Europe during the Last Interglacial

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Tzedakis, P. C., Drysdale, R. N., Margari, V., Skinner, L. C., Menviel, L., Rhodes, R. H., Taschetto, A. S., Hodell, D. A., Crowhurst, S. J., Hellstrom, J. C., Fallick, A. E., Grimalt, J. O., McManus, J. F., Martrat, B., Mokeddem, Z., Parrenin, F., Regattieri, E., Roe, K., Zanchetta, G.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
• Subjects: Article; Greenland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6185935/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30315157; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06683-3

Considerable ambiguity remains over the extent and nature of millennial/centennial-scale climate instability during the Last Interglacial (LIG). Here we analyse marine and terrestrial proxies from a deep-sea sediment sequence on the Portuguese Margin and combine results with an intensively dated Italian speleothem record and climate-model experiments. The strongest expression of climate variability occurred during the transitions into and out of the LIG. Our records also document a series of multi-centennial intra-interglacial arid events in southern Europe, coherent with cold water-mass expansions in the North Atlantic. The spatial and temporal fingerprints of these changes indicate a reorganization of ocean surface circulation, consistent with low-intensity disruptions of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The amplitude of this LIG variability is greater than that observed in Holocene records. Episodic Greenland ice melt and runoff as a result of excess warmth may have contributed to AMOC weakening and increased climate instability throughout the LIG.