Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2019-16
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2019-16
12 Feb 2019
 | 12 Feb 2019
Status: this preprint was under review for the journal CP but the revision was not accepted.

Climate changes in interior semi-arid Spain from the last interglacial to the late Holocene

Dongyang Wei, Penélope González-Sampériz, Graciela Gil-Romera, Sandy P. Harrison, and I. Colin Prentice

Abstract. The El Cañizar de Villarquemado sequence provides a palaeoenvironmental record from the western Mediterranean Basin spanning the interval from the last part of MIS6 to the late Holocene. The pollen and sedimentological records provide qualitative information about changes in temperature seasonality and moisture conditions. We use Weighted Averaging Partial Least-Squares (WA-PLS) regression to derive quantitative reconstructions of winter and summer temperature regimes from the pollen data, expressed in terms of the mean temperature of the coldest month (MTCO) and growing degree days above a baseline of 0 °C (GDD0) respectively. We also reconstruct a moisture index (MI), the ratio of annual precipitation to annual potential evapotranspiration, taking account of the effect of low CO2 on water use efficiency. We find a rapid summer warming at the transition to MIS5. Summers were cold during MIS4 and MIS2, but some intervals in MIS3 were characterized by summers as warm as the warmest phases of MIS5 or the Holocene. However, MIS3 was not significantly warmer in winter than other intervals, and there was a gradual decline in winter temperature from MIS4 through MIS3 to MIS2. The pronounced changes in temperature seasonality during MIS5 and MIS1 are consistent with changes in summer insolation. The ecophysiological effects of changing CO2 concentration through the glacial cycle has a significant impact on reconstructed MI. Conditions became progressively more humid during MIS5 and MIS4 was also relatively humid, while MIS3 was more arid. High MI values are reconstructed during the deglaciation and there was a pronounced increase in aridity during the Holocene. Changes in MI are anti-correlated with changes in GDD0, with increased MI during intervals of summer warming indicating a strong influence of temperature on evapotranspiration. Although our main focus here is on longterm changes in climate, the Villarquemado record also shows millennial-scale changes corresponding to Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
Dongyang Wei, Penélope González-Sampériz, Graciela Gil-Romera, Sandy P. Harrison, and I. Colin Prentice
 
Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement
Dongyang Wei, Penélope González-Sampériz, Graciela Gil-Romera, Sandy P. Harrison, and I. Colin Prentice
Dongyang Wei, Penélope González-Sampériz, Graciela Gil-Romera, Sandy P. Harrison, and I. Colin Prentice

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Latest update: 20 Nov 2024
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Short summary
El Cañizar de Villarquemado provides a pollen record from semi-arid Spain since before the last interglacial. We use modern pollen–climate relationships to reconstruct changes in seasonal temperature and moisture, accounting for CO2 effects on plants, and show coherent climate changes on glacial–interglacial and orbital timescales. The low glacial CO2 means moisture changes are less extreme than suggested by the vegetation shifts, and driven by evapotranspiration rather than rainfall changes.