Evidence for high-frequency late Glacial to mid-Holocene (16,800 to 5500 cal yr B.P.) climate variability from oxygen isotope values of Lough Inchiquin, Ireland

Abstract

A 7.6-m core recovered from Lough Inchiquin, western Ireland provides evidence for rapid and long-term climate change from the Late Glacial period to the Mid-Holocene. We determined percentage of carbonate, total organic matter, mineralogy, and δ18Ocalcite values to provide the first high-resolution record of climate variability for this period in Ireland. Following deglaciation, rapid climate amelioration preceded large increases in GISP2 δ18Oice values by ∼2300 yr. The Oldest Dryas (15,100 to 14,500 cal yr B.P.) Late Glacial event is documented in this record as a decrease in δ18Ocalcite values. Brief warming at ∼12,700 cal yr B.P. was followed by characteristic Younger Dryas cold and dry climate conditions. A rapid increase in δ18Ocalcite values at ∼10,500 cal yr B.P. marked the onset of Boreal warming in western Ireland. The 8200 cal yr B.P. event is represented by a brief cooling in our record. Prior to general warming, a larger and previously undescribed climate anomaly between 7300 and 6700 cal yr B.P. is characterized by low δ18Ocalcite values with high-frequency variability.

The evolution of Palaeolake Flixton and the environmental context of Star Carr: an oxygen and carbon isotopic record of environmental change for the early Holocene

“…The absolute value of authigenic carbonates precipitated during this interval shows a spatial variation which is consistent with known variations in the δ 18 O value of modern day precipitation, i.e. the early Holocene peak in δ 18 O values is higher in western sites such as Loch Inchquin and Haweswater, ca -4.0 to -4.5‰ (Marshall et al, 2002;Diefendorf et al, 2006;2008)) than at eastern sites such as Lundin Tower and Palaeolake Flixton, ca -6‰ (Whittington et al, 1996). However, at all sites the magnitude of the decrease is relatively consistent, between 2 and 3‰.…”

“…A review of the literature indicates that the pattern of δ 18 O values seen at Flixton, is also seen at Loch Inchquin (west coast of Ireland (Diefendorf et al, 2006;2008)), Haweswater (the English Lake District (Marshall et al, 2002;2007)), Lundin Tower (southeast Scotland (Whittington et al, 1996)) and Lake Tibetanus (northern Sweden ((Hammarlund et al, 2002) (Figure 7). It should be highlighted that the chronology of many of these sites is of low resolution, there is, therefore, no implication that the timing of these peaks are synchronous or that the onset of the depletion trend is uniform across the British Isles.…”

A first evaluation of the spatial gradients in δ18O recorded by European Holocene speleothems

“…Authigenic carbonates from lake sediment cores retrieved from Lough Gur (southwestern Ireland) by Ahlberg et al This is broadly in line with the decrease in  18 O spel inferred from the spatial correlations for the western end of the speleothem transect presented here (Figure 6b). Similarly, in a study of late Glacial to Holocene lake carbonates from Lough Inchiquin (western Ireland), Diefendorf et al (2006) demonstrated that  18 O values in authigenic calcites increased rapidly at c. 10.5 ka, interpreted to reflect the onset of Boreal warming in western Ireland in the early Holocene.…”

The last glacial maximum and late glacial environmental and climate dynamics in the Baikal region inferred from an oxygen isotope record of lacustrine diatom silica

“…The millennial-to century-scale climatic events, such as the last glacial maximum (LGM), the Meiendorf (MD), Bølling (BO) and Allerød (AL) warming phases, the Oldest Dryas (OstD), Older Dryas (OD) and Younger Dryas (YD) cold events were exposed by highresolution and accurately dated proxy records from terrestrial archives (Wang et al, 2001;Yuan et al, 2004;Svensson et al, 2008) and lake sediments (Litt and Stebich, 1999;Yu and Eicher, 2001;Nakagawa et al, 2005;Diefendorf et al, 2006;Stebich et al, 2009;Zhao et al, 2013), providing important information about the rate, amplitude and driving mechanisms of these climatic events.…”