The Preboreal climate reversal and a subsequent solar-forced climate shift

Abstract

Accurate chronologies are essential for linking palaeoclimate archives. Carbon-14 wiggle-match dating was used to produce an accurate chronology for part of an early Holocene peat sequence from the Borchert (The Netherlands). Following the Younger Dryas-Preboreal transition, two climatic shifts could be inferred. Around 11 400 cal. yr BP the expansion of birch (Betula) forest was interrupted by a dry continental phase with dominantly open grassland vegetation, coeval with the PBO (Preboreal Oscillation), as observed in the GRIP ice core. At 11 250 cal. yr BP a sudden shift to a humid climate occurred. This second change appears to be contemporaneous with: (i) a sharp increase of atmospheric 14C; (ii) a temporary decline of atmospheric CO2; and (iii) an increase in the GRIP 10Be flux. The close correspondence with excursions of cosmogenic nuclides points to a decline in solar activity, which may have forced the changes in climate and vegetation at around 11 250 cal. yr BP. © 2004 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.