Climatic variability of Marine Isotope Stage 7:: direct land-sea-ice correlation from a multiproxy analysis of a north-western Iberian margin deep-sea core

The direct land-sea-ice correlation, performed in the north-western Iberian margin core MD01-2447, shows that Marine Isotope Stage 7 (MIS 7) is marked by an alternation of five warm and cold periods. This climatic variability is, in general, synchronously detected in marine and terrestrial realms by our record. Termination III is marked by three cold episodes. The last one interrupts the forest development in north-western Iberia related to the deglacial climatic amelioration. It begins in the middle of Termination III but the maximal cold conditions occur at the beginning of low ice volume conditions. MIS 7 is characterised by three periods of very low ice volume, associated with marine and continental high temperatures in and off north-western Iberia. The correlation of our record with ODP site 980 shows that the climatic variability detected in the north-western Iberian region has also an imprint in northern North Atlantic. It also highlights that most of the cold periods are associated with iceberg discharges in the North Atlantic. The comparison of the north-western Iberian margin sequence with the long European pollen records has allowed refining the correlation of the marine and continental stratigraphy for MIS 7. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.