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Environmental variability during the Last Interglacial: a new high‐resolution pollen record from Tenaghi Philippon, Greece
Author(s) -
Milner Alice M.,
Müller Ulrich C.,
Roucoux Katherine H.,
Collier Richard E. L.,
Pross Jörg,
Kalaitzidis Stavros,
Christanis Kimon,
Tzedakis Polychronis C.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/jqs.2617
Subject(s) - interglacial , stadial , temperate climate , mediterranean climate , geology , climatology , pollen , physical geography , oceanography , glacial period , geography , paleontology , ecology , holocene , archaeology , biology
A new high‐resolution Last Interglacial pollen record from the Tenaghi Philippon peatland, northeast Greece, documents variability in forest composition and cover, which we attribute to changes in temperature and moisture availability. The declining stage of the interglacial was marked by a stepwise decrease in temperate tree populations and culminated in the complete collapse of forest at the onset of the ensuing stadial. The coincidence of the onset of the stepwise declining trend with the increased prominence of North Atlantic ice‐rafting events suggests that ecological thresholds in southern Europe were only crossed once ice rafting events intensified, and implies that changes in North Atlantic ocean circulation were an important contributing factor to the declining temperate forest cover in southern Europe. Our results provide evidence for intra‐interglacial variability in the low mid latitudes and suggest a coupling between the high northern latitudes and the northeast Mediterranean during this interval. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.