Solar forcing of climatic change during the mid-Holocene: indications from raised bogs in The Netherlands

Abstract

Two cores of mid-Holocene raised-bog deposits from the Netherlands were 14C wiggle-match dated at high precision. Changes in local moisture conditions were inferred from the changing species composition of consecutive series of macrofossil samples. Several wet-shifts were inferred, and these were often coeval with major rises in the Δ14C archive (probably caused by major declines in solar activity). The use of Δ14C as a proxy for changes in solar activity is validated. This paper adds to the increasing body of evidence that solar variability forced climatic changes during the Holocene.