Centennial scale climate oscillations from southern Siberia in the Last Glacial Maximum

A lack of adequate high resolution climate proxy records for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) has prevented the extrapolation of climate-solar linkages on centennial time scales prior of the Holocene. Therefore, it is still unknown whether centennial climate variations of the last ten thousand years convey a universal climate change or merely represent a characteristic of the Holocene. Recently published high resolution climate proxy records for the LGM allowed us to extrapolate climate-solar linkages on centennial time scales ahead of the Holocene. Here we present the analysis of a high resolution pollen concentration record from Lake Kotokel in southern Siberia, Russia, during the LGM. The record reflects the dynamics of vegetation zones and temperature change with a resolution of similar to 40 years in the continental climate of north-eastern Asia. We demonstrate that our pollen concentration record, the oxygen isotope delta O-18 record from the Greenland ice core project NGRIP (NorthGRIP), the dust-fall contributions in Lake Qinghai, China, grain size in the Gulang and Jingyuan loess deposits, China, and the composite oxygen isotope delta O-18 record from the Alpine cave system 7H reveal cooler to warmer climate fluctuations between similar to 20.6 and 26 ka. Such fluctuations correspond to the similar to 1000-yr, 500-600-yr and 210-250-yr cycles possibly linked to the solar activity variations and recognized in high resolution Holocene proxies all over the world. We further show that climate fluctuations in the LGM and Holocene are spectrally similar suggesting that linkages between climate proxies and solar activity at the centennial time scale in the Holocene can be extended to the LGM. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A lack of high resolution climate proxy records for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) has hindered the understanding of climate-solar linkages. Recent studies on high resolution climate proxy records during the LGM confirm similar climate fluctuations and solar activity variations to the Holocene. The analysis of pollen concentration records from Lake Kotokel in southern Siberia reveals spectrally similar climate fluctuations in the LGM and Holocene.