Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 5 1 2009 10.5194/cpd-5-203-2009 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/203/2009/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/203/2009/cpd-5-203-2009.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/203/2009/cpd-5-203-2009.pdf 203 235 2009-01-20 Abrupt climate changes of the last deglaciation detected in a western Mediterranean forest record W. J. Fletcher w.fletcher@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr M. F. Sanchez Goñi O. Peyron I. Dormoy Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, UMR 5805 CNRS EPOC, Université Bordeaux 1, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France Laboratoire de Chrono-Environnement, UMR 6249, Université de Franche-Comté, 16 Route de Gray, 25030 Besançon, France Evidence for abrupt changes in western Mediterranean climate between 20 and 6 cal ka BP is examined in marine core MD95-2043 (Alborán Sea), using pollen data for temperate Mediterranean forest development and pollen-based climate reconstructions using the modern analogue technique (MAT) for annual precipitation (P_ann) and mean temperatures of the coldest and warmest months (MTCO and MTWA). Major climatic shifts with parallel temperature and precipitation changes occurred at the onsets of Heinrich Event 1 (equivalent to the Oldest Dryas), the Bölling-Allerød (BA), and the Younger Dryas (YD). Multi-centennial-scale oscillations in forest development related to regional precipitation (P_ann) variability occurred throughout the BA, YD, and early Holocene, with drier atmospheric conditions in phase with Lateglacial events of high-latitude cooling including GI-1d (Older Dryas), GI-1b (Intra-Allerød Cold Period) and GS-1 (YD), and during Holocene events associated with high-latitude cooling, meltwater pulses and N. Atlantic ice-rafting (events at 11.4, 10.1, 9.3, 8.2 and 7.4 cal ka BP). The forest record also indicates multi-centennial variability within the YD interval and multiple Preboreal climate oscillations. A possible climatic mechanism for the recurrence of dry intervals and an opposed regional precipitation pattern with respect to western-central Europe relates to the dynamics of the jet stream and the prevalence of atmospheric blocking highs. 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