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www.clim-past-discuss.net/7/3049/2011/
doi:10.5194/cpd-7-3049-2011
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under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
A multi-proxy perspective on millennium-long climate variability in the Southern Pyrenees
1Department of Surface Waters, Eawag, Überlandstrasse 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
2Laboratorio Internacional de Cambio Global (LINCGlobal), PUC-CSIC, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, PUC, Alameda 340, PC 6513677, Santiago, Chile
3Departamento de Procesos Geoambientales y Cambio Global, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE) – CSIC, Campus de Aula Dei, Avda. Montañana 1005, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain
4Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL), ETH domain, Zürich, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
5Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB) – CSIC, C/Accés a la Cala St. Francesc, 14, Blanes 17300, Spain
6Departamento de Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Calle Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
7Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, CCHS-CSIC, C/Albasanz, 26–28, 28037 Madrid, Spain
8Departamento de Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Zaragoza, Calle Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
9Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Department of Marine Biogeology, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
10Subunidad de Geografía Física Departamento de Geografía, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Plaza del Campus s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
11Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota, 310 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
12Departament of Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 645, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Abstract. A review of selected, well-dated, multiproxy paleoclimatic records (lacustrine, dendrochronological, geomorphological) characterizes the main environmental changes occurred in the Southern Pyrenees during the last millennium. Warmer and relatively arid conditions prevailed during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, <1300 AD), with a significant development of xerophytes and Mediterranean vegetation and limited deciduous tree formations (mesophytes). The Little Ice Age (LIA, 1300–1800 AD) was generally colder and moister, with an expansion of deciduous taxa and cold-adapted mountainous conifers. Two major phases occurred within this period: (i) a transition MCA-LIA, characterized by fluctuating, moist conditions and relatively cold temperatures (ca. 1300 and 1600 AD); – (ii) a second period, characterized by coldest conditions and higher humidity, coinciding with maximum (recent) glacier advances (ca. 1600–1850 AD). After the LIA a warming and more arid phase started coinciding with glacier retreat, and interrupted by a short-living cooling episode during the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Some records suggest a response to solar activity with colder and slightly moister conditions during solar minima. Centennial-scale hydrological fluctuations are in phase with reconstructions of NAO variability, which appears to be the main forcing for humidity in the region during the last millennium.
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Notice on Discussion StatusCitation: Morellón, M., Pérez-Sanz, A., Corella, J. P., Büntgen, U., Catalán, J., González-Sampériz, P., González-Trueba, J. J., López-Sáez, J. A., Moreno, A., Pla, S., Saz-Sánchez, M. Á., Scussolini, P., Serrano, E., Steinhilber, F., Stefanova, V., Vegas-Vilarrúbia, T., and Valero-Garcés, B.: A multi-proxy perspective on millennium-long climate variability in the Southern Pyrenees, Clim. Past Discuss., 7, 3049-3089, doi:10.5194/cpd-7-3049-2011, 2011. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
