Millennial-scale climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere influenced 
glacier dynamics in the Alps around 250,000 years ago

Skiba, Vanessa; Spötl, Christoph; Trüssel, Martin; Schröder-Ritzrau, Andrea; Schröder [Plessen], Birgit; Frank, Norbert; Eichstädter, René; Tjallingii, Rik; Marwan, Norbert; Zhang, Xu; Fohlmeister, Jens

doi:10.1038/s43247-023-01083-y

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Millennial-scale climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere influenced glacier dynamics in the Alps around 250,000 years ago

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/persons/resource/vskiba

Skiba, Vanessa
4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 4.0 Geosystems, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Spötl, Christoph
External Organizations;

Trüssel, Martin
External Organizations;

Schröder-Ritzrau, Andrea
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/persons/resource/birgit

Schröder [Plessen], Birgit
4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 4.0 Geosystems, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Frank, Norbert
External Organizations;

Eichstädter, René
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/tjalling

Tjallingii, Rik
4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 4.0 Geosystems, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Marwan, Norbert
External Organizations;

Zhang, Xu
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/jensf

Fohlmeister, Jens
4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 4.0 Geosystems, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

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Citation

Skiba, V., Spötl, C., Trüssel, M., Schröder-Ritzrau, A., Schröder [Plessen], B., Frank, N., Eichstädter, R., Tjallingii, R., Marwan, N., Zhang, X., Fohlmeister, J. (2023): Millennial-scale climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere influenced glacier dynamics in the Alps around 250,000 years ago. - Communications Earth and Environment, 4, 426.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01083-y

Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5023655

Abstract

Mountain glaciers are sensitive recorders of natural and human-induced climate change. Therefore, it is imperative to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between climate and glacier response on both short and long timescales. Here we present an analysis of oxygen and carbon isotope data from speleothems formed mainly below a glacier-covered catchment in the Alps 300,000 to 200,000 years ago. Isotope-enabled climate model simulations reveal that δ18O of precipitation in the Alps was higher by approximately 1 ‰ during interstadials compared to stadials. This agrees with interstadial-stadial amplitudes of our new speleothem-based estimate after correcting for cave-internal effects. We propose that the variability of these cave-internal effects offers a unique tool for reconstructing long-term dynamics of warm-based Alpine palaeoglaciers. Our data thereby suggests a close link between North Atlantic interstadial-stadial variability and the meltwater dynamics of Alpine glaciers during Marine Isotope Stage 8 and 7d.