Coupling between atmospheric [CO2] and temperature during the last millennium
by
T.B. van Hoof
Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD
Coauthors: W.M. Kürschner, F. Wagner, H. Visscher

The Little Ice Age climate deterioration is the most recent cool pulse of a series of recurrent climate fluctuations throughout the Holocene. Within the current discussion on the coupling of CO² and temperature, documentation of both parameters on a high temporal resolution is needed. In this study a high resolution CO² record will be obtained by means of stomatal frequency analysis of (sub-) fossil leaves from natural archives. Suitable sites have been identified in the southeastern part of the Netherlands near the village of Sint Odiliënberg. An organic rich infill of an oxbow lake of the river Roer has been cored. This core consists of almost four meters of laminated clayey gyttja covered by a peat layer. An AMS ¹⁴C date at the bottom of the core and the results from a preliminary pollen analysis show that this core contains a continuous high resolution record for the last millennium. Coupling of historical records with palynological and sedimentological proxies will provide a very precise high resolutiontime-frame for the stomatal frequency based CO² reconstructions. The area is particularly suitable for historical research because the church and monastries of Sint Odiliënberg have a rich well-documented history dating back to 750 AD. Preliminary atmospheric CO² reconstructions based on stomatal frequency analysis on (sub-) fossil Salix and Quercus leaves from this core show the distinct human induced CO² increase since the onset of the industrial revolution and additional CO² fluctuations corresponding to the known temperature changes of the Little Ice Age. In the continuation of this project, a near annual documentation of CO² variations as documented by the above mentioned proxies will be established and compared with several temperature records, especially the LCT record (Low Countries Temperature record).

Date received: April 24, 2001

Copyright © 2001 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cahi-11.