Comparison of temperature and humidity during MIS 11 and MIS 5e interglacials with the Holocene using stable isotopes in tufa deposits from northern France

Abstract

Abstract Many recent palaeoclimatic studies have focused on Pleistocene interglacials, especially Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 5e and 11, as analogs to our modern interglacial (MIS 1). In continental area, archives allowing comparison between interglacials remain scarce. Calcareous tufa deposits, as they are characteristic of these periods and can provide long, almost continuous, palaeoclimatic records through their isotopic content, appear highly suitable for such investigation. In this paper, δ18O and δ13C values from the three well-dated tufas of Saint-Germain-le-Vasson, Caours, and La Celle are combined to compare temperature and moisture conditions prevailing during MIS 1, 5e, and 11, in the Paris Basin. Both Pleistocene interglacials, and especially their optima, appear stronger than the Holocene: MIS 11 was wetter and warmer than both the Holocene and MIS 5e, which itself experienced wetter conditions than the Holocene. These observations are consistent with palaeontological data from the studied sites, especially malacological assemblages, which record, as at other European tufa sites, a relative depletion of molluscan diversity during the Holocene compared with the Pleistocene (MIS 5 and 11) interglacials.