A cold 'Medieval Warm Period' and a warm 'Little Ice Age' and other climate stories from Atlantic Ocean sedimentary records of the past 500.000 years

The Late Holocene was characterized by several centennial-scale climate oscillations including the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. The detection and investigation of such climate anomalies requires paleoclimate archives with an accurate chronology as well as a high temporal resolution. Here, we present 230Th/U-dated high-resolution multi-proxy records (δ13C, δ18O and trace elements) for the last 2500 years of four speleothems from Bunker Cave and the Herbstlabyrinth cave system in Germany. The multi-proxy data of all four speleothems show evidence of two warm and two cold phases during the last 2500 years, which coincide with the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, as well as the Dark Ages Cold Period and the Little Ice Age, respectively. During these four cold and warm periods, the δ18O and δ13C records of all four speleothems and the Mg concentration of the speleothems Bu4 (Bunker Cave) and TV1 (Herbstlabyrinth cave system) show common features and are thus interpreted to be related to past climate variability. Comparison with other paleoclimate records suggests a strong influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation at the two caves sites, which is reflected by warm and humid conditions during the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, and cold and dry climate during the Dark Ages Cold period and the Little Ice Age. The Mg records of speleothems Bu1 (Bunker Cave) and NG01 (Herbstlabyrinth) as well as the inconsistent patterns of Sr, Ba and P suggests that the processes controlling the abundance of these trace elements are dominated by site-specific effects rather than being related to supra-regional climate variability.

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Signals of Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age from southwestern Madhya Pradesh (India): A pollen-inferred Late-Holocene vegetation and climate change

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2013.07.011 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 325 ◽

pp. 74-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

M.F. Quamar ◽

M.S. Chauhan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Medieval Warm Period ◽

Madhya Pradesh ◽

Warm Period ◽

Ice Age ◽

Vegetation And Climate

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Vegetation changes in the Hotyn Upland over the last 2000 years (based on pollen data)

Journal of Geology Geography and Geoecology ◽

10.15421/111906 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 51-58 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

N. Gerasimenko ◽

T. Yurchenko ◽

Ye. Rohozin

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Medieval Warm Period ◽

Warm Period ◽

Ice Age ◽

Humid Climate ◽

Cool Period ◽

Surface Samples ◽

Pollen Surface ◽

Short Period

Pollen study of two soil sections, located in two different relief positions (the gully bottom at Sadgora 1 and the upper part of a slope at Ridkivtsi I) enables us to show vegetational and climatic changes in the Bukovyna area (the Chernivtsi region) during the last 2000 years (the end of the Early Subatlantic, the Middle and Late Subatlantic). The reconstructions of past vegetation are based on the analyses of pollen surface samples, taken from the soils of different ecotops in the sites’ vicinity. The reconstructed short-period phases of environmental change correspond well with those established in other areas. These are the end of the “Roman warm period” (before the 14C date of 1.74 ka BP), with the humid climate; the relatively dry “Dark Ages cool period” (before the 14C date of 1.19 ka BP); the wet “Medieval warm period”; the cool “Little Ice Age” (with its wetter beginning and drier ending) and the modern warm phase (the last 150 years).Centennial environmental changes − the cooling within the Medieval Warming (XI cent.) and the warming within the “Little Ice Age” (XV cent.) – have been detected. Human impact on the vegetation can be demonstrated – forest clearance (with the presence of particles of microscopic charcoal and pollen of pyrophitic plants), the introduction of thermophilous walnut during warm periods, and the appearance of pasture lands in the place of former fern patches and woods during the “Little Ice Age”, and the last warm phase (with the presence of pollen of pastoral synanthropic plants). In the last 2000 years, broad-leaved woodland, dominated by hornbeam, grew extensively near Sadgora and Ridkivtsi only during the “Medieval Warm Period”.

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Moisture Changes in the Northern Xinjiang Basin Over the Past 2400 years as Documented in Pollen Records of Jili Lake

Frontiers in Earth Science ◽

10.3389/feart.2021.741992 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Yulin Xiao ◽

Lixiong Xiang ◽

Xiaozhong Huang ◽

Keely Mills ◽

Jun Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽

Warm Period ◽

Ice Age ◽

Pollen Record ◽

Humid Climate ◽

Northern Xinjiang ◽

The Past ◽

Climate Background

Regional humidity is important for terrestrial ecosystem development, while it differs from region to region in inland Asia, knowledge of past moisture changes in the lower basin of northern Xinjiang remainly largely unclear. Based on a pollen record from Jili Lake, the Artemisia/(Amaranthaceae + Ephedra) (Ar/(Am + E)) ratio, as an index of regional humidity, has recorded four relatively dry phases: 1) 400 BCE to 1 CE, 2) the Roman Warm Period (RWP; c. 1–400 CE), 3) the Medieval Warm Period (MWP; c. 850–1200 CE) and 4) the Current Warm Period (CWP; since 1850 CE). In contrast, the Dark Age Cold Period (DACP; c. 400–850 CE) and the Little Ice Age (LIA; c. 1200–1850 CE) were relatively wet. Lower lake levels in a relatively humid climate background indicated by higher aquatic pollen (Typha and Sparganium) after c. 1700 CE are likely the result of intensified irrigation for agriculture in the catchment as documented in historical records. The pollen Ar/(Am + E) ratio also recorded a millennial-scale wetting trend from 1 CE to 1550 CE which is concomitant with a long-term cooling recorded in the Northern Hemisphere.

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