Similarity of vegetation dynamics during interglacial periods

Rachid Cheddadi (1) , Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu (2) , Jean Jouzel (3, 4) , Valérie Andrieu-Ponel (2) , Jeanne-Marie Laurent (1) , Maurice Reille (3) , Dominique Raynaud (5) , Avner Bar-Hen (6)

1 UMR ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier
2 IMEP - Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie
3 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
4 GLACCIOS - Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables
5 LGGE - Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement
6 LATP - Laboratoire d'Analyse, Topologie, Probabilités

The Velay sequence (France) provides a unique, continuous, palynological record spanning the last four climatic cycles. A pollen-based reconstruction of temperature and precipitation displays marked climatic cycles. An analysis of the climate and vegetation changes during the interglacial periods reveals comparable features and identical major vegetation successions. Although Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11.3 and the Holocene had similar earth precessional variations, their correspondence in terms of vegetation dynamics is low. MIS 9.5, 7.5, and especially 5.5 display closer correlation to the Holocene than MIS 11.3. Ecological factors, such as the distribution and composition of glacial refugia or postglacial migration patterns, may explain these discrepancies. Comparison of ecosystem dynamics during the past five interglacials suggests that vegetation development in the current interglacial has no analogue from the past 500,000 years.

Keywords: climatic cycles; interglacials; pollen records; ka; thousand years; MIS; marine isotope stage; Tjan; reconstructed January temperature; Pann; reconstructed annual precipitation; BAG; bioclimatic affinity groups

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences; Glaciology

Rachid Cheddadi, Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu, Jean Jouzel, Valérie Andrieu-Ponel, Jeanne-Marie Laurent, et al.. Similarity of vegetation dynamics during interglacial periods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2005, 102 (39), pp.13939 à 13943. ⟨10.1073/pnas.0501752102⟩. ⟨insu-00373779⟩