A multi-proxy perspective on millennium-long climate variability in the Southern Pyrenees

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

Holocene and ‘Little Ice Age’ glacial activity in the Marboré Cirque, Monte Perdido Massif, Central Spanish Pyrenees

“…The lack of information on glacial evolution during the Holocene (except for the LIA) contrasts with an increasing number of lacustrine Holocene records available from the Iberian Peninsula (Corella et al, 2011;Moreno et al, 2011;Morellón et al, 2012;Oliva and Gómez Ortiz, 2012). Collectively, these studies have demonstrated the existence of important environmental changes throughout the Holocene.…”

“…The age of this polished surface indicates that during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA, 1.15-0.65 cal ky BP) deglaciation occurred at the high altitudes in the Pyrenees. The MCA was warmer and relatively more arid period in the Iberian Peninsula as indicated by lacustrine records from NE Spain (Morellón et al, 2012;Corella et al, 2012Corella et al, , 2013, and southern Spain (Zoñar and La Moska lakes: Martín-Puertas et al, 2008;Oliva and Gómez Ortiz, 2012), marine sediment near the Alboran basin (Martín-Puertas et al, 2010;Nieto-Moreno et al, 2011), and fossil pollen data from southern France to southeast Spain (Jalut et al, 2000). According to Moreno et al (2012), the MCA in the Iberian Peninsula was characterized by decreased lake levels, fewer floods, major Saharan aeolian fluxes, and less fluvial input to marine basins.…”

“…7), a period of relatively colder and more humid conditions in the Iberian Peninsula, but with large climate variability (Morellón et al, 2012) and 1999 (Julián and Chueca, 2007) (Fig. 10).…”

Lipid biomarkers in Lake Enol (Asturias, Northern Spain): Coupled natural and human induced environmental history

“…These findings could be linked to the climatic conditions that occurred during the Little Ice Age (L1A), which is widely believed to have ended around the second half of the 19th century Oones et al, 2001Oones et al, , 2009, when humidity increased Martín-Puertas et al, 2008Morellón et al, 2009Morellón et al, , 2012Nieto-Moreno et al, 2011), producing greater runoff and therefore an increase in OM input. Moreover, cold conditions could have inhibited bacterial activity and diagenesis of OM (d. Zheng et al, 2007).…”

Deglaciación en la Cordillera Cantábrica: modelo y evolución

“…Pollen records cannot mark this change because of the intense landscape transformation and territory over-exploitation in the preceding centuries (Muñoz-Sobrino et al, 2005), although in some Pyrenean lake deposits the Little Ice Age has been tracked to colder and more humid conditions, showing a strong link between periods of more positive water balance and phases of reduced solar activity (Morellón et al, 2009(Morellón et al, , 2012.…”