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

• Main Authors: Tzedakis, PC, Drysdale, RN, Margari, V, Skinner, LC, Menviel, L, Rhodes, RH, Taschetto, AS, Hodell, DA, Crowhurst, SJ, Hellstrom, JC, Fallick, AE, Grimalt, JO, McManus, JF, Martrat, B, Mokeddem, Z, Parrenin, F, Regattieri, E, Roe, K, Zanchetta, G
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Greenland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10059955/1/s41467-018-06683-3.pdf; https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10059955/

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.