| Summary: | Intensity and regional expression of past interglacial periods are among the challenging questions on natural interglacial variability. Model experiments show that some interglacials of the last 800 kyr, such as MIS 9 and 5 interglacials, stand out by the strongest warming at high latitudes resulting from important insolation and greenhouse gas forcing while weak or no temperature difference with other interglacials is simulated at mid-latitudes. Processes leading to glacial inceptions are also debated. Millennialscale climate variability during ice volume minima was proposed to play a predominant role in prescribing interglacial duration. A major evidence of that process was given by the pollen record from the SW Iberian margin MD01-2443 showing an early collapse of the Mediterranean forest in SW Europe during MIS 9e likely due to an abrupt climate change. This terrestrial interglacial appears however anomalously short-lasting as compared to other records from the southern Europe and North Atlantic. The IODP site U1385 from the SW Iberian margin enables to revisit the regional signature of the MIS 9 interglacial in southwestern Europe. We will present new pollen data to characterize the Iberian vegetation and climate changes during MIS9e. Our results display, in agreement with the MD01-2443 pollen record, a short-lasting maximal forest expansion during the early MIS9e but a persisting forest over the entire MIS9e. Comparisons with MIS 5 pollen data from the Iberian margin and model simulations confirm that in contrast to high latitudes, interglacial climate in southern Europe, in particular precipitation, mainly result from the contribution of insolation.
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