Open AccessTemperature oscillations over the last 10,000 years in western Europe estimated from terrestrial mollusc assemblages
Author(s) -
ROUSSEAU DENISDIDIER,
LIMONDIN NICOLE,
MAGNIN FRÉDÉRIC,
PUISSEGUR JEANJACQUES
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
boreas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1502-3885
pISSN - 0300-9483
DOI - 10.1111/j.1502-3885.1994.tb00587.x
Subject(s) - glacier , geology , western europe , proxy (statistics) , oceanography , younger dryas , climatology , physical geography , sea surface temperature , global warming , climate change , geography , paleontology , european union , machine learning , computer science , business , economic policy
Snail assemblages are used to estimate February and August temperatures during the past 10,000 years in western Europe. We find that a strong warming occurred after the Younger Dryas event, followed by several rapid cooling and warming events. These observations are in agreement with insect and pollen proxy data from the European continent and with estimates of sea‐surface temperature from the North Atlantic Ocean as well as with fluctuations of glaciers in western Norway. This study also confirms that terrestrial molluscs can provide reliable climatic data in conjunction with other proxy data.