Maria Fernanda Sanchez Goñi

École Pratique des Hautes Études | EPHE · Paléoclimatologie et paléoenvironnements marins

The following collection of contributions presents both unique and synthesized regional evidence that provides considerable clarification regarding this part of the European Quaternary stratigraphical sequence. It is a reliable step forward to overcome an over‐simplistic view, because progress over recent years in many different fields has led to s...

The seasonal and latitudinal distribution of insolation is considered the main factor controlling the magnitude and timing of interglacial periods. However, despite small differences in insolation forcing, vegetation and hydrology in southern Europe during past interglacials are variable and the gradual change in insolation cannot explain the obser...

Deep-sea pollen records from the Western European margin show that during the Last Glacial period (115-27 ka), regional vegetation oscillated between steppe and open forest in response to the millennial scale climate variability, Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles and Heinrich events (HE), and that the magnitude of the forest expansions during D-O war...

The study of Neanderthal-Environment interactions very often lacks precise data that match the chrono-geographical frame of human activities. Here, we reconstruct Neanderthals’ hunting grounds within three distinct habitats using dental microwear analysis combined with zooarchaeological data. The predation patterns toward ungulates are discussed in...

Warming transitions during the Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) from a cold stadial environment to a warm interstadial one had occurred, according to the annual resolution ice core chronology, within several decades. Ocean records from the North Atlantic revealed that the driving force of the different climate modes was closely related with the stabil...

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 (ca. 71–57 ka; within the Middle Weichselian Substage) is considered a significant Pleistocene glaciation, but it remains poorly constrained in comparison to that of the Late Weichselian Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ca. 29–19 ka, during MIS 2), or even the Late Saalian MIS 6 (ca. 190–130 ka). Most MIS 4 glacial landforms...

Determining the impact of climatic variations on past human cultural changes is a difficult task due to the chronological uncertainties inherent to the dating methods applied to archaeological and paleoclimatic archives, and by the different temporal resolution of both archives. Here, we present two high-resolution pollen-based palaeoenvironmental...

Deep-sea and terrestrial records allow to document the amplitude, timing and duration of the oceanic and vegetation responses to orbital and millennial-scale changes, in particular during North Atlantic cooling events (Heinrich events, HEs) in Western Europe during the Last Glacial Period (~115- 27 ka). We propose a multiproxy study based on two de...

The end of the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT, ~ 800-670 thousand years before present, ka) was characterised by the emergence of large glacial ice-sheets associated with anomalously warm North Atlantic sea surface temperatures enhancing moisture production. Still, the direction and intensity of moisture transport across Eurasia towards potenti...

Reliable quantitative vegetation reconstructions for Europe during the Holocene are crucial to improving our understanding of landscape dynamics, making it possible to assess the past effects of environmental variables and land-use change on ecosystems and biodiversity, and mitigating their effects in the future. We present here the most spatially...

Citation: Serge, M.A.; Mazier, F.; Fyfe, R.; Gaillard, M.-J.; Klein, T.; Lagnoux, A.; Galop, D.; Githumbi, E.; Mindrescu, M.; Nielsen, A.B.; et al. Testing the Effect of Relative Pollen Productivity on the REVEALS Model: A Validated Reconstruction of Europe-Wide Holocene Vegetation. Land 2023, 12, 986. https://doi. Abstract: Reliable quantitative v...

The orbital configuration of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 19 provides a good analogue to our present interglacial, and it is marked by millennial-scale climate variability. To evaluate how orbital and millennial-scale climate changes interact during this interglacial we have conducted a high-resolution study of planktonic foraminifera assemblages at...

The geography of the Earth at the end of the Tertiary, with the new arrangement of continents, oceans and the distribution of mountain ranges, especially since the opening of the Drake Strait and the closing of the Isthmus of Panama, favoured a global cooling trend that culminated in the Quaternary. In addition to the ice sheets of Antarctica and G...

Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS 1) and the preceding pre-HS 1 episode are some of the latest extreme events of the last glacial period and correspond to the preliminary phase of the dramatic retreat of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheet that leads to the last glacial–interglacial transition. HS 1 is considered the marine equivalent of the Oldest Dryas in Eur...

The Younger Dryas (YD) stadial is the last extreme cold event detected in the northern hemisphere during the last deglaciation. Many theories have been proposed to explain the causes of this event. Currently, the most accepted one is that the increased meltwater discharges into the North Atlantic or Arctic Sea produced a series of changes in ocean...

The Bølling–Allerød (B-A), the terrestrial counterpart of Dansgaard–Oeschger 1, is the first abrupt northern hemisphere climate warming episode of the last deglaciation. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this event: all involve the strengthening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) prior or during the Heinrich St...

This chapter briefly describes the long-term climate evolution, as well as, the superimposed abrupt climate shifts that have punctuated the Last Deglaciation, that is, the pre-Heinrich Stadial 1 and the Heinrich Stadial 1, the Bølling–Allerød Interstadial and the Younger Dryas Stadial. A short description of the impact of these abrupt changes in th...

This chapter briefly describes the long term climate evolution, as well as, the superimposed abrupt climate shifts that have punctuated the last glaciation, the last deglaciation and the present-day interglacial, known as the Holocene. The last glacial period, from Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 5e to MIS 1 (115–14.7 cal ka BP), was punctuated by a se...

The analysis of ancient pollen (and spores) preserved in sedimentary sequences is a classical approach used in paleoclimatology, paleoecology and archaeology since the beginning of the twentieth century. Yet, pollen analysis is the most powerful tool to reconstruct past vegetation changes affording more precise documentation of distribution, compos...

Late Pleistocene orbital and millennial-to-centennial climate changes strongly affected European ecosystems, leading to a contrasted vegetation response following north–south and east–west gradients. The optimal Eemian forest development, c. 126 ka, may have reduced the biomass of big mammals and triggered Neanderthal population decline. In contras...

Among the 100 kyr climatic cycles of the Late Pleistocene, Termination V (TV, ∼ 433–404 kyr BP), the fifth last deglaciation, stands out for its minimum in astronomical forcing associated paradoxically with maxima in sea level, Antarctic temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration. However, the driving mechanisms explaining TV remain only partial...

Evaluating synchronies between climate and cultural changes is a prerequisite for addressing the possible effect of environmental changes on human populations. Searching for synchronies during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition (ca. 48–36 ka) is hampered by the limits of radiocarbon dating techniques and the large chronological uncertainties a...

This introductory chapter succinctly describes the evolution of the European Ice Sheet configuration during the Last Glacial Period, from the end of Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 5e to the onset of MIS 1 (116–14.7 cal ka BP), and defines the millennial-scale changes that have punctuated this time period, that is, the Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles and the...

This chapter summarises the environmental changes that accompanied the rapid growth of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets c. 35–30 cal ka BP and their maximum extent c. 29–19 cal ka BP, with a special focus on the European continent and its surrounding margins.

This chapter introduces the methodologies applied to marine sediments to reconstruct sea-level changes during the Last Glacial Cycle, and from those, ice volume estimates. The most recent marine-based reconstructions and their origins are cited.

This chapter introduces the historical definition of the Last Glacial Cycle, based on cyclostratigraphy applied to marine oxygen isotopic series derived from foraminiferal records. The division of the Last Glacial Cycle in several substages is discussed, and a chronological framework is presented with special emphasis on a clear definition(s) of th...

The causes and consequences of the episodic iceberg-discharge events from the Hudson Strait Ice Stream of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, or Heinrich events (HE), are one of the most explored topics in Pleistocene palaeoclimatology. In this chapter, we summarise three decades of intense research while introducing recent results from both the European and...

This chapter describes the millennial-scale climatic variability in the atmosphere of Greenland during the Last Glacial Cycle (MIS 5e–MIS 1, 116–14.7 cal ka BP), that is, the Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) cycles, and the associated global changes in greenhouse gas atmospheric concentrations, particularly CO2 and CH4, and atmospheric circulation (Ca²⁺ co...

Among the 100 kyr climatic cycles of the late Pleistocene, Termination V (TV, ~[404-433] kyr BP), the fifth last deglaciation, stands out for its minimum in astronomical forcing associated paradoxically with maxima in sea level, Antarctic temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration. However, the driving mechanisms explaining TV remain only partia...

Marine microcharcoal records provide invaluable information to understand changes in biomass burning and its drivers over multiple glacial and interglacial cycles and to evaluate fire models under warmer climates than today. However, quantitative reconstructions of burnt area, fire intensity and frequency from these records need calibration studies...

The Last Interglacial (LIG; 130–115 ka) is an important test bed for climate science as an instance of significantly warmer than preindustrial global temperatures. However, LIG climate patterns remain poorly resolved, especially for winter, affected by a suite of strong feedbacks such as changes in sea-ice cover in the high latitudes. We present a...

Nowadays, primary productivity variations at the SW Iberian Margin (IbM) are primarily controlled by wind‐driven upwelling. Thus, major changes in atmospheric circulation and wind regimes between the Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 12 and 9 could have driven substantial changes in phytoplankton productivity which remains poorly understood. We present a...

The traditional concept of long and gradual, glacial-interglacial climate changes during the Quaternary has been challenged since the 1980s. High temporal resolution analysis of marine, terrestrial and ice geological archives has identified rapid, millennial-to centennial-scale, and large-amplitude climatic cycles throughout the last few million ye...

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 13,~533e478 ka, has received particular attention due to the unexpected enhancement of monsoon systems under a cool climate characterized by lower atmospheric CO 2 and larger ice volume than many other interglacials. Key questions remain about its regional expression (intensity, climate variability, length), and underlyin...

The massive North Atlantic iceberg discharges of the last glacial period, the so-called Heinrich events (HE), resulted in atmospheric and oceanic responses of the Mediterranean region that remain poorly documented and understood. This paper focuses on the climatic phases termed Heinrich stadials (HS) 4 and 5 generated by the HE 4 and 5 that occurre...

Ice core data have shown that atmospheric CO2 concentrations during interglacials were lower before the Mid‐Brunhes Event (MBE, ~430 ka), than after the MBE by around 30 ppm. To explain such a difference, it has been hypothesized that increased bottom water formation around Antarctica or reduced Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) co...

Rapid changes in ocean circulation and climate have been observed in marine-sediment and ice cores over the last glacial period and deglaciation, highlighting the non-linear character of the climate system and underlining the possibility of rapid climate shifts in response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing. To date, these rapid changes in cli...

This paper presents a computational program named BINCOR (BINned CORrelation) for estimating the correlation between two unevenly spaced time series. This program is also applicable to the situation of two evenly spaced time series not on the same time grid. BINCOR is based on a novel estimation approach proposed by Mudelsee (2010) for estimating t...

Paleoclimate reconstructions suggest that the complex variability within the Greenland stadial 1 (GS-1) over western Europe was governed by coupled ocean and atmospheric changes. However, few works from the North Atlantic mid-latitudes document both the GS-1 onset and its termination, which are often considered as single abrupt transition events. H...

The MIS 17 interglacial, ∼715-675 ka, marks the end of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition as intensified, long and asymmetrical 100-kyr ice age cycles became eminently established. Increasing arrival of moisture to the Northern Hemisphere high latitudes, resulting from the northwestward migration of the Subpolar Front and the intensification of the Nor...

In the version of this Review Article originally published, ref. 10 was mistakenly cited instead of ref. 107 at the end of the sentence: “This complexity of residual ice cover makes it likely that HTM warming was regional, rather than global, and its peak warmth thus had different timing in different locations.” In addition, for ref. 108, Scientifi...

We present a computational program named BINCOR (BINned CORrelation) to estimate the correlation between two unevenly spaced climate time series, which is based on a novel estimation approach proposed by 7. The idea is that autocorrelation (e.g., AR1) means memory, which allows to correlate values obtained on different time points. The binned corre...

The suitability of MIS 11c and MIS 19c as analogues of our present interglacial and its natural evolution is still debated. Here we examine the regional expression of the Holocene and its orbital analogues over SW Iberia using a model–data comparison approach. Regional tree fraction and climate based on snapshot and transient experiments using the...

Over the past 3.5 million years, there have been several intervals when climate conditions were warmer than during the pre-industrial Holocene. Although past intervals of warming were forced differently than future anthropogenic change, such periods can provide insights into potential future climate impacts and ecosystem feedbacks, especially over...

Atmospheric CO2 levels during interglacials prior to the Mid-Brunhes Event (MBE, ∼ 430 kaBP) were around 40 ppm lower than after the MBE. The reasons for this difference remain unclear. A recent hypothesis proposed that changes in oceanic circulation, in response to different external forcings before and after the MBE, might have increased the ocea...

Pollen from deep-sea sedimentary sequences provides an integrated regional reconstruction of vegetation and climate (temperature, precipitation, and seasonality) on the adjacent continent. More importantly, the direct correlation of pollen, marine and ice indicators allows comparison of the atmospheric climatic changes that have affected the contin...

List of the 129 deep-sea pollen records distributed over the world.

Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st-century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) cycles dur...

Wonderkrater, a Middle Stone Age site in the interior of South Africa, is a spring and peat mound featuring both paleoclimatic and archaeological records. The site preserves three small MSA lithic assemblages with age estimates of 30 ka, >45 ka and 138.01±7.7 ka. Here we present results of the pollen analysis of a core retrieved from the middle of...

The archaeological record shows that typically human cultural traits emerged at different times, in different parts of the world, and among different hominin taxa. This pattern suggests that their emergence is the outcome of complex and nonlinear evolutionary trajectories, influenced by environmental, demographic, and social factors, that need to b...

The interglacials of the last 800,000 years are all warm periods comparable to the current interglacial, called the Holocene. However, their intensity, duration, variability and regional expression are different as the result of different astronomical and greenhouse gases forcing. The work presented here focuses on the regional expression of these...

Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles dur...

Marine Isotope Stage 31 (MIS 31) is an important analogue for ongoing and projected global warming, yet key questions remain about the regional signature of its extreme orbital forcing and intra-interglacial variability. Based on a new direct land-sea comparison in SW Iberian margin IODP Site U1385 we examine the climatic variability between 1100 a...

Atmospheric CO2 levels during interglacials prior to the Mid Bruhnes Event (MBE, ~ 430 ka BP) have lower values of around 40 ppm than after the MBE. The reasons for this difference remain unclear. A recent hypothesis proposed that changes in oceanic circulation, in response to differences in external forcing before and after the MBE, might have inc...

Climatic variability of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 is examined using a new high-resolution direct land–sea comparison from the SW Iberian margin Site U1385. This study, based on pollen and biomarker analyses, documents regional vegetation, terrestrial climate and sea surface temperature (SST) variability. Suborbital climate variability is reveal...