Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:56:48.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A 1 Ma sea surface temperature record from the North Atlantic and its implications for the early human occupation of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2018

Ian Candy  and
Montserrat Alonso-Garcia
Ian Candy*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
Montserrat Alonso-Garcia
Affiliation:
Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), Div. de Geologia e Georecursos Marinhos, Lisboa, Portugal Centro de Ciencias do Mar (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom. E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Candy).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The British Quaternary sequence has an exceptionally rich record of Palaeolithic archaeology up to 1 Ma. In this study, we reinvestigate foraminifera-based sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions from the two marine core records (Ocean Drilling Program Site 980 and M23414) that are most relevant to the climatic history of the British Isles, consequently allowing the evolution of SST over the past 1 Ma to be studied. This is then compared with long-term changes with the British archaeological record in order to understand in greater detail the changing patterns of climatic forcing and the major climatic transitions that were the background environmental drivers against which patterns of early human occupation occurred. These include the mid-Pleistocene revolution, the mid-Brunhes event, and changing patterns of isotopic substage complexity. Significantly, however, the SST record indicates that the Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 15–13 interval was characterised by the most prolonged period of consistently warm conditions of the entire 1 Ma interval in the northeast Atlantic. This unique climatic period correlates with the first major proliferation of archaeological sites in northwest Europe. The article concludes by discussing the significance of these climatic shifts for our understanding of early human occupation in this region.

Keywords

PalaeolithicInterglacial-glacial cyclesMid-Brunhes eventMid-Pleistocene transition
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 90 , Issue 2 , September 2018 , pp. 406 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alonso-Garcia, M., Sierro, F.J., Flores, J.A., 2011a. Arctic front shifts in the subpolar North Atlantic during the Mid-Pleistocene (800–400 ka) and their implications for ocean circulation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 311, 268–280.Google Scholar
Alonso-Garcia, M., Sierro, F.J., Kucera, M., Flores, J.A., Cacho, I., Andersen, N., 2011b. Ocean circulation, ice sheet growth and interhemispheric coupling of millennial climate variability during the mid-Pleistocene (ca 800–400 ka). Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 3234–3247.Google Scholar
Ashton, N., Lewis, S.G., 2002. Deserted Britain: declining populations in the British late Middle Pleistocene. Antiquity 76, 388–396.Google Scholar
Ashton, N., Lewis, S.G., Parfitt, S.A., Penkman, K.E.H., Coope, G.R., 2008. New evidence for complex climate change in MIS 11 from Hoxne, Suffolk, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 27, 652–668.Google Scholar
Ashton, N., Lewis, S.G., Stringer, C. (Eds.), 2011. The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain. Developments in Quaternary Science. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Bintanja, R., van de Wal, R.S.W., 2008. North American ice-sheet dynamics and the onset of 100,000-year glacial cycles. Nature 454, 869–872.Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R., 2000. River terrace systems in north-west Europe: an archive of environmental change, uplift and early human occupation. Quaternary Science Review 19, 1293–1303.Google Scholar
Candy, I., McClymont, E.L., 2013. Interglacial intensity in the North Atlantic over the last 800,000 years: investigating the complexity of the mid-Brunhes Event. Journal of Quaternary Science 28, 343–348.Google Scholar
Candy, I., Rose, J., Coope, G.R., Lee, J.R., Parfitt, S.P., Preece, R.C., Schreve, D.C., 2010. Pronounced climate warming during early Middle Pleistocene interglacials: investigating the mid-Brunhes event in the British terrestrial sequence. Earth Science Reviews 103, 183–196.Google Scholar
Candy, I., Rose, J., Lee, J.R., 2006. A seasonally ‘dry’ interglacial climate in eastern England during the early Middle Pleistocene: palaeopedological and stable isotopic evidence from Pakefield, UK. Boreas 35, 255–265.Google Scholar
Candy, I., Schreve, D.S., 2007. Land–sea correlation of Middle Pleistocene temperate sub-stages using high-precision uranium-series dating of tufa deposits from southern England. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 1223–1235.Google Scholar
Candy, I., Schreve, D.C., Sherriff, J., Tye, G.J., 2014. Marine Isotope Stage 11: palaeoclimates, palaeoenvironments and its role as an analogue for the current interglacial. Earth-Science Reviews 128, 18–51.Google Scholar
Candy, I., Schreve, D., White, T.S., 2015. MIS 13 to 12 in Britain and the North Atlantic: understanding the palaeoclimatic context of the earliest Acheulean. Journal of Quaternary Science 30, 593–609.Google Scholar
Candy, I., Silva, B.N., Lee, J.R., 2011. Climates of the early Middle Pleistocene in Britain: environments of the earliest humans in northern Europe. In: Ashton, N., Lewis, S.G., Stringer, C. (Eds.), The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 11–22.Google Scholar
Clark, P.U., Archer, D., Pollard, D., Blum, J.D., Rial, J.A., Brovkin, V., Mix, A.C., Pisias, N.G., Roy, M., 2006. The middle Pleistocene transition: characteristics, mechanisms, and implications for long-term changes in atmospheric pCO2 . Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 3150–3184.Google Scholar
Coope, G.R., 2006. Insect faunas associated with Palaeolithic industries from five sites of pre-Anglian age in central England. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 1738–1754.Google Scholar
Coope, G.R., 2010. Coleopteran faunas as indicators of interglacial climates in central and southern England. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 1507–1514.Google Scholar
Coope, G.R., Gibbard, P.L., Hall, A.R., Preece, R.C., Robinson, J.E., Sutcliffe, A.J., 1997. Climatic and environmental reconstructions based on fossil assemblages from Middle Devensian (Weichselian) deposits of the river Thames at South Kensington, central London, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 10, 1163–1195.Google Scholar
Coope, G.R., Kenward, H.K., 2007. Evidence from coleopteran assemblages for a short but intense cold interlude during the latter part of the MIS 11 interglacial from Quinton, West Midlands, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 3276–3285.Google Scholar
Elderfield, H., Ferretti, P., Greaves, M., Crowhurst, S., McCave, N., Hodell, D., Piotrowski, A.M., 2012. Evolution of ocean temperature and ice volume through the mid-Pleistocene climate transition. Science 377, 704–709.Google Scholar
European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) Community Members. 2004. Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core. Nature 429, 623–628.Google Scholar
Hao, Q., Wang, L., Oldfield, F., Guo, Z., 2015. Extra-long interglacial in Northern Hemisphere during MIS 15–13 arising from limited extent of Arctic ice sheets in glacial MIS 14. Scientific Reports 5, 12103.Google Scholar
Hodell, D.A., Channell, J.E.T., Curtis, J.H., Romero, O.E., Röhl, U., 2008. Onset of “Hudson Strait” Heinrich events in the eastern North Atlantic at the end of the middle Pleistocene transition (~640 ka)? Paleoceanography 23, PA4218.Google Scholar
Hosfield, R., 2011. The British Lower Palaeolithic of the early Middle Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 1486–1510.Google Scholar
Jansen, J.H.F., Kuijpers, A., Troelstra, S.R., 1986. A mid-Brunhes climatic event: long-term changes in global atmosphere and ocean circulation. Science 4750, 619–622.Google Scholar
Jouzel, J., Masson-Delmotte, V., Cattani, O., Dreyfus, G., Falourd, S., Hoffmann, G., Minster, B., et al., 2007. Orbital and millennial Antarctic climate variability over the past 800,000 years. Science 317, 793–796.Google Scholar
Kandiano, E.S., Bauch, H.A., 2003. Surface ocean temperatures in the Northeast Atlantic during the last 500,000 years: evidence from foraminiferal census data. Terra Nova 4, 265–271.Google Scholar
Kucera, M., Weinelt, M., Kiefer, T., Pflaumann, U., Hayes, A., Weinelt, M., Chen, M.-T., et al., 2005. Reconstruction of sea-surface temperatures from assemblages of planktonic foraminifera: multi-technique approach based on geographically constrained calibration data sets and its application to glacial Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, 951–998.Google Scholar
Lang, N., Wolff, E.W., 2011. Interglacial and glacial variability from the last 800 ka in marine, ice and terrestrial archives. Climates of the Past 7, 361–380.Google Scholar
Lawrence, K.T., Herbert, T.D., Brown, C.M., Raymo, M.E., Haywood, A.M., 2009. High-amplitude variations in North Atlantic sea surface temperature during the Pliocene warm period. Paleoceanography 24, PA2218.Google Scholar
Lawrence, K.T., Sosdian, S., White, H.E., Rosenthal, Y., 2010. North Atlantic climate evolution through the Plio-Pleistocene climate transitions. Earth and Planetary Letters 300, 329–342.Google Scholar
Lewis, S.G., Ashton, N.M., Jacobi, R.M., 2011. Testing human presence during the last interglacial (MIS 5e): a review of the British evidence. In: Ashton, N., Lewis, S.G., Stringer, C. (Eds.), The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 125–164.Google Scholar
Lisiecki, L.E., Raymo, M.E., 2005. A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally-distributed benthic δ18O records. Paleoceanography 20, PA1003.Google Scholar
Martrat, B., Grimalt, J.O., Shackleton, N.J., de Abreu, L., Hutterli, M.A., Stocker, T.F., 2007. Four climate cycles of recurring deep and surface water destabilizations on the Iberian margin. Science 317, 502–507.Google Scholar
McClymont, E.L., Sosdian, S.M., Rosell-Melé, A., Rosenthal, Y., 2013. Pleistocene sea-surface temperature evolution: early cooling, delayed glacial intensification, and implications for the mid-Pleistocene climate transition. Earth-Science Reviews 123, 173–193.Google Scholar
Naafs, B.D.A., Hefter, J., Acton, G., Haug, G.H., Martinez-Garcia, A., Pancost, R.D., Stein, R., 2012. Strengthening of North American dust sources during the Late Pliocene (2.7 Ma). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 317–318, 8–19.Google Scholar
Naafs, B.D.A., Hefter, J., Ferretti, P., Stein, R., Haug, G.H., 2011. Sea surface temperatures did not control the first occurrence of Hudson Strait Heinrich Events during MIS 16. Paleoceanography 26, PA4201.Google Scholar
Naafs, B.D.A., Hefter, J., Stein, R., 2013. Millennial-scale ice rafting events and Hudson Strait Heinrich(-like) Events during the late Pliocene and Pleistocene: a review. Quaternary Science Reviews 80, 1–28.Google Scholar
Oppo, D.W., McManus, J.F., Cullen, J.L., 1998. Abrupt Climate Events 500,000 to 340,000 years ago: evidence from subpolar North Atlantic sediments. Science 279, 1335–1338.Google Scholar
Oppo, D.W., McManus, J.F., Cullen, J.L., 2006. Evolution and demise of the last interglacial warmth in the subpolar North Atlantic. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 3268–3277.Google Scholar
Parfitt, S.A., Ashton, N.M., Lewis, S.G., Abel, R.L., Coope, G.R., Field, M.H., Gale, R., et al., 2010. Early Pleistocene human occupation at the edge of the boreal zone in northwest Europe. Nature 466, 229–233.Google Scholar
Parfitt, S.A., Barendregt, R.W., Breda, M., Candy, I., Collins, M.J., Coope, G.R., Durbidge, P., et al., 2005. The earliest record of human activity in northern Europe. Nature 438, 1008–1012.Google Scholar
Past Interglacials Working Group of PAGES 2016. Interglacials of the last 800,000 years. Review of Geophysics 54, 162–219.Google Scholar
Penkman, K.E.H., Preece, R.C., Bridgland, D.R., Keen, D.H., Meijer, T., Parfitt, S.A., White, T.S., Collins, M.J., 2011. A chronological framework for the British Quaternary based on Bithynia opercula. Nature 476, 446–449.Google Scholar
Pettitt, P.B., White, M.J., 2012. The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Pisias, N.G., Moore, T.C. Jr., 1981. The evolution of Pleistocene climate: a time series approach. Earth Planetary Science Letters 52, 450–458.Google Scholar
Preece, R.C., Parfitt, S.A., 2000. The Cromer Forest-bed Formation: new thoughts on an old problem. In: Lewis, S.G., Whiteman, C.A., Preece, R.C. (Eds.), The Quaternary of Norfolk and Suffolk: Field Guide. Quaternary Research Association, London, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Preece, R.C., Parfitt, S.A., 2012. The Early and early Middle Pleistocene context of human occupation and lowland glaciation in Britain and northern Europe. Quaternary International 271, 6–28.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, T., Alonso-Garica, M., Hodell, D.A., Rufino, M., Naughton, F., Grimalt, J.O., Voleker, A.H.L., Abrantes, F., 2017. A 1-Ma record of sea surface temperature and extreme cooling events in the North Atlantic: a perspective from the Iberian Margin. Quaternary Science Reviews 172, 118–130.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, T., Voelker, A.H.L., Grimalt, J.O., Abrantes, F., Naughton, F., 2011. Iberian Margin sea surface temperature during MIS 15 to 9 (580–300 ka): glacial suborbital variability versus interglacial stability. Paleoceanography 26, PA1204.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., Raymo, M.E., Martinson, D.G., Clement, B.M., Backman, J., 1989. Pleistocene evolution: Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and North Atlantic Ocean. Paleoceanography 4, 353–412.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., Shackleton, N.J., McIntyre, A., 1986. North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures for the last 1.1 million years. In: Summerhayes, C.P., Shackleton, N.J. (Eds.), North Atlantic Paleoceanography. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 21, 155–173.Google Scholar
Schreve, D.C., 2001a. Differentiation of the British late Middle Pleistocene interglacials: the evidence from mammalian biostratigraphy. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 1693–1705.Google Scholar
Schreve, D.C., 2001b. Mammalian evidence from Middle Pleistocene fluvial sequences for complex environmental change at the oxygen isotope substage level. Quaternary International 79, 65–74.Google Scholar
Schreve, D.C., Moncel, M.H., Bridgland, D.R., 2015. Chronology, palaeoenvironments and subsistence in the Acheulian of western Europe. Journal of Quaternary Science30, 585–592.Google Scholar
Sosdian, S., Rosenthal, Y., 2009. Deep-sea temperature and ice volume changes across the Pliocene-Pleistocene climate transitions. Science 325, 306–310.Google Scholar
Spratt, R.M., Lisiecki, L.E., 2016. A Late Pleistocene sea level stack. Climate of the Past 12, 1079–1092.Google Scholar
Stein, R., Hefter, J., Grützner, J., Voelker, A., Naafs, B.D.A., 2009. Variability of surface water characteristics and Heinrich-like events in the Pleistocene midlatitude North Atlantic Ocean: biomarker and XRD records from IODP Site U1313 (MIS 16-9). Paleoceanography 24, PA2203.Google Scholar
Stuart, A.J., Lister, A.M., 2001. The mammalian faunas of Pakefield/Kessingland and Corton, Suffolk, UK: evidence for a new temperate episode in the British early Middle Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 1677–1692.Google Scholar
Toucanne, S., Zaragosi, S., Bourillet, J.F., Gibbard, P.L., Eynaud, F., Giraudeau, J., Turon, J.L., et al., 2009. A 1.2 Ma record of glaciation and fluvial discharge from the West European Atlantic margin. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 2974–2981.Google Scholar
Westaway, R., 2011. A re-evaluation of the timing of the earliest reported human occupation of Britain: the age of the sediments at Happisburgh, eastern England. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 122, 383–396.Google Scholar
White, M.J., Schreve, D.C., 2000. Island Britain – peninsula Britain: palaeogeography, colonisation and the Lower Palaeolithic settlement of the British Isles. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 66, 1–28.Google Scholar
Wright, A.K., Flower, B.P., 2002. Surface and deep ocean circulation in the subpolar North Atlantic during the mid-Pliestocene revolution. Paleoceanography 17, 1068.Google Scholar