Holocene hydrological changes in Europe and the role of the North Atlantic ocean circulation from a speleothem perspective

• Main Authors: Demeny, Attila, Kern, Zoltan, Hatvani, Istvan Gabor, Torma, Csaba, Topal, Daniel, Frisia, Silvia, Leel-Ossy, Szabolcs, Czuppon, Gyorgy, Suranyi, Gergely
• Other Authors: The University of Newcastle. College of Engineering, Science & Environment, School of Environmental and Life Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021
• Subjects: European and mediterranean regions; speleothems; stable isotope compositions; principal component analysis; Holocene hydroclimate; ocean circulations; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1433347

Societal concerns about future hydroclimate changes urge a thorough understanding of the governing processes. Here, an analysis of Middle and Late Holocene speleothem-based hydroclimate reconstructions and paleoclimate model simulations reveals sub-millennial fluctuations in the spatiotemporal variability of precipitation in the European and Mediterranean regions, that complements previous dendrochronological and pollen-based reconstructions with an improved temporal resolution. Although insolation forcing is the primary driver of Holocene hydroclimate changes in Europe on a multimillennial scale, the evaluation of the principal component analysis of speleothem records and correlations with sea surface temperature data indicates that North Atlantic ocean circulation played a significant role in the sub-millennial variation of continental moisture transport, with an increasing importance during the Late Holocene. The combined evaluation of speleothem-based data, climate simulations and sea surface temperature records therefore advances our understanding of the governing processes of Holocene hydroclimate changes in the European and Mediterranean regions.