Thank you for responding to the 2 reviewers comments so carefully and considerately. The manuscript reads very well with these comments now included, and I am satisfied that you have addressed their concerns. Your revised Abstract and Introduction give a stronger rationale for your study and demonstrate the implications more clearly (as noted by Reviewer 1), and you have incorporated the pollen interpretations to provide a detailed review of the mechanisms recorded in your data (as noted by Reviewer 2). There remain some minor typos and grammatical errors within the manuscript which will require thorough checking, and which I have provided in the non-public comments.

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to Climate of the Past.