Large-scale vegetation shifts during substantial warming — Proxy-based biome reconstructions of MIS 6 and MIS 5e in Europe

Abstract

The climatic changes from the penultimate glacial (MIS 6) to the last interglacial (MIS 5e) and their impact on regional vegetation and the environment inhabited by Neanderthals were profound. While terrestrial pollen data and vegetation reconstructions for MIS 5e are plenty, only few records are available for MIS 6 with no biome reconstruction published so far. Thus, 112 plant fossil sites from Europe and the Near East were compiled in this study, and qualitative and quantitative biome reconstructions were performed for MIS 6 and MIS 5e. This led to the first pollen based spatial reconstruction of vegetation cover for the penultimate glacial. As expected, vegetation patterns change severely and vegetation density increased with the substantial warming from MIS 6 to MIS 5e. Generally, in MIS 6 central and northern Europe was mainly covered by tundra/mammoth steppe, while temperate grassland, open woodland and shrubland dominated southern Europe. During MIS 5e, Europe was largely forested, with temperate forest in the north and warm forests and shrubland in the south. Still, climatic changes from the penultimate glacial to the last interglacial had regionally different effects on vegetation especially regarding the pace and severity of vegetation overturn. Comparison with published model outputs enables a sound spatial representation of large-scale vegetation patterns on megabiome level. Reducing the granularity of the data of both model and proxy-based biome reconstructions to megabiome level leads to a high level of agreement. Still, some discrepancies remain especially in the northern and easternmost parts of Europe, which could be due to dating issues. However, an underestimation of high latitude warming by the underlying climate models may also contribute to discrepancies in vegetation models compared to proxy data. Overall, the results reveal insights into the regional and local vegetation structure and may serve as an informed basis for spatial analyses of the environmental preferences of Neanderthals.