Search results for "Palaeoclimate"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
The influence of decision-making in tree ring-based climate reconstructions.
2021
Tree-ring chronologies underpin the majority of annually-resolved reconstructions of Common Era climate. However, they are derived using different datasets and techniques, the ramifications of which have hitherto been little explored. Here, we report the results of a double-blind experiment that yielded 15 Northern Hemisphere summer temperature reconstructions from a common network of regional tree-ring width datasets. Taken together as an ensemble, the Common Era reconstruction mean correlates with instrumental temperatures from 1794–2016 CE at 0.79 (p < 0.001), reveals summer cooling in the years following large volcanic eruptions, and exhibits strong warming since the 1980s. Differing in…
Environmental and climatic controls of the clay mineralogy of Albian deposits in the Paris and Vocontian basins (France)
2020
18 pages; International audience; High-resolution clay mineral analyses were performed on lower and middle Albian deposits from the Paris and Vocontian basins in order to specify the weathering conditions that prevailed at that time. The clay mineral assemblages are composed of small proportions of chlorite and vermiculitic clays associated with abundant illite, R0 type illite-smectite mixed-layers (smectite) and kaolinite. Clay minerals originated from the physical alteration and chemical weathering of rocks and soils outcropping on the Variscan massifs bordering the studied areas. In the Paris Basin, the covariation of illite and kaolinite suggests the reworking of these latter minerals f…
Astrochronology of the Valanginian Stage from reference sections (Vocontian Basin, France) and palaeoenvironmental implications for the Weissert Even…
2013
12 pages; International audience; High-resolution gamma-ray measurements performed on five biostratigraphically well-dated reference sections from the Vocontian Basin (south-eastern France) are used to develop a new astrochronology of the Valanginian Stage and its subdivisions (i.e. ammonite and calcareous nannofossil zones and subzones). Spectral analyses show a pervasive dominance of 405-kyr eccentricity cycles with the expression of 100-kyr eccentricity, obliquity and precession. Previous rough estimates of Valanginian Stage duration ranged from 3.9 to 6.5 myr but were generally based on less reliable or indirect methods. This study provides a precise duration of 5.08 myr, tuning the ser…
Rhinocerotid tooth enamel 18O/16O variability between 23 and 12 Ma in southwestern France.
2006
Abstract The relationship between the oxygen isotope ratio of mammal tooth enamel and that of drinking water was used to reconstruct changes in the Miocene oxygen isotope ratio of rainfall (meteoric water δ 18 O MW ). These, in turn, are related to climatic parameters (temperature, precipitation and evaporation rate). δ 18 O values of rhinocerotid teeth from the Aquitaine Basin (southwestern France) suggest a significant climatic change between 17 and 12 Ma, characterized by cooling together with precipitation increase, in agreement with other terrestrial and oceanic records. To cite this article: I. Bentaleb et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).
Conjunctive use of spectral gamma-ray logs and clay mineralogy in defining late Jurassic-early Cretaceous palaeoclimate change (Dorset, U.K.).
2006
Abstract Detrital clay mineralogy is controlled by weathered source rock, climate, transport and deposition that in turn influence the spectral gamma-ray (SGR) response of resultant sediments. Whilst a palaeoclimate signal in clay mineralogy has been established in some ancient successions, the SGR response remains contentious, largely because the data sets have yet to be collected at the same or appropriate vertical scales to allow comparison. In addition, the influence of organic matter on SGR is not always considered. Here, we present clay mineralogical, total organic carbon (TOC) and SGR analyses from the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous of the Wessex Basin, a period of previously doc…
High-resolution clay mineralogy as a proxy for orbital tuning: example of the Hauterivian-Barremian transition in the Betic Cordillera (SE Spain).
2012
11 pages; International audience; The response of clay mineral assemblages to potential orbital forcing is tested in Mesozoic hemipelagic marl- limestone rhythmites of the Río Argos section (Betic Cordillera, Southeastern Spain). Along the section, marls are pervasively enriched in kaolinite and illite, whereas limestones are enriched in smectite-rich illite/smectite mixed-layers, suggesting that marl-limestone alternations are produced by cyclic high-frequency fluctuations of continental runoff. Spectral analyses show that clay mineral assemblages evolve accordingly to precession, obliquity and eccentricity cycles. Durations of ammonite zones are assessed at 535 kyr for the Late Hauterivia…
Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia
2013
Past global climate changes had strong regional expression. To elucidate their spatio-temporal pattern, we reconstructed past temperatures for seven continental-scale regions during the past one to two millennia. The most coherent feature in nearly all of the regional temperature reconstructions is a long-term cooling trend, which ended late in the nineteenth century. At multi-decadal to centennial scales, temperature variability shows distinctly different regional patterns, with more similarity within each hemisphere than between them. There were no globally synchronous multi-decadal warm or cold intervals that define a worldwide Medieval Warm Period or Little Ice Age, but all reconstructi…
Amphibians and reptiles as palaeonvironmental proxies during the Late Pleistocene (MIS3): The case of Stratigraphic Unit V of El Salt, Alcoi, Spain
2021
The locality of El Salt (Alcoi, Spain) is a key site for understanding the extirpation of Neanderthals in the eastern part of Iberia. In this paper, we analyse an assemblage of amphibians and reptiles from Stratigraphic Unit V (45.2 ± 3.4 ka to 44.7 ± 3.4 ka), which corresponds to one of the last regional records of Neanderthals, to improve knowledge of the palaeoecology and palaeoclimate of this event. The assemblage comprises three anurans (Pelodytes sp., Alytes obstetricans, and Epidalea calamita), two lizards (Lacertidae indet. and Chalcides bedriagai), and five snakes (Colubridae indet., Coronella sp., Coronella sp./Zamenis sp., Natrix maura, and Vipera latastei). Palaeoclimatic recons…
Speleothems from the Middle East: An Example of Water Limited Environments in the SISAL Database
2019
The Middle East (ME) spans the transition between a temperate Mediterranean climate in the Levant to hyper-arid sub-tropical deserts in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula (AP), with the complex alpine topography in the northeast feeding the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which support life in the Southeastern Fertile Crescent (FC). Climate projections predict severe drying in several parts of the ME in response to global warming, making it important to understand the controls of hydro-climate perturbations in the region. Here we discuss 23 ME speleothem stable oxygen isotope (δ18Occ) records from 16 sites from the SISAL_v1 database (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis database), …
Reprint of "Shell oxygen isotope values and sclerochronology of the limpet "Patella vulgata" Linnaeus 1758 from northern Iberia: Implications for the…
2017
Abstract: Understanding environmental conditions faced by hunter-fisher-gatherers during the Pleistocene and Holocene, and interpretation of subsistence strategies, social organisation and settlement patterns, are key topics for the study of past human societies. In this respect, oxygen isotope values (?18O) of mollusc shell calcium carbonate can provide important information on palaeoclimate and the seasonality of shell collection at archaeological sites. In this paper, we tested P. vulgata shells from northern Iberia as a paleoclimate archive through the study of shell oxygen isotope values and sclerochronology of modern samples. Results showed that limpets formed their shells close to is…