Millennial-scale variability during the last glacial in vegetation records from Europe William J. Fletcher a, b, * , Maria Fernanda Sa ´ nchez Gon ˜i a , Judy R.M. Allen c , Rachid Cheddadi d , Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout e , Brian Huntley c , Ian Lawson f , Laurent Londeix g , Donatella Magri h , Vasiliki Margari f , Ulrich C. Mu ¨ ller b , Filipa Naughton i , Elena Novenko j , Katy Roucoux f , P.C. Tzedakis f, k a EPHE, UMR 5805 CNRS EPOC, Universite´ Bordeaux 1, Talence 33405, France b Institute of Geosciences, Goethe-Universita ¨t, Frankfurt am Main 60438, Germany c School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK d Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution – Montpellier, UMR 5554, Universite´ de Montpellier II, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France e Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, Gif sur Yvette F-91198, France f Earth and Biosphere Institute & School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK g Universite´ Bordeaux 1, Talence 33405, France h Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Universita ` di Roma ‘‘La Sapienza’’, Rome, Italy i Department of Marine Geology, Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovaça ˜o-INETI, Alfragide, Portugal j Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russian Federation k Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Mytilene 81100, Greece article info Article history: Received 11 November 2009 Accepted 11 November 2009 abstract This paper evaluates the evidence for millennial-scale variability in pollen records of the last glacial (Marine Isotope Stages 4, 3, and 2; 73.5–14.7 calendar ka BP) from the European continent, taking into account information derived from long, continuous terrestrial records, the fragmentary northern Euro- pean terrestrial record, and marine pollen records of the European continental margins. Pollen records from these numerous European sites provide evidence for multiple intervals of relatively warm and humid conditions during the last glacial, which promoted the establishment of grassland and shrub tundra in northwestern Europe, shrub- and forest-tundra in northeastern Europe, open boreal forest in central western Europe and the Alpine region, and open temperate forest in southern Europe. The northern limit for temperate forest development during these intervals was at w45  N, with a subsequent northward transition to tundra across a latitudinal band of w15  in western and central Europe, and a greater northward extension of boreal forest in eastern Europe, with boreal forest elements detected close to their present-day limits at w70  N. A much smaller number of sites with sufficiently high temporal resolution provide evidence that warming intervals correspond to millennial-scale variability as recorded in Greenland ice cores. A synthesis of sites providing high-resolution terrestrial and marine records from Europe is undertaken in order to examine geographical and temporal patterns in the expression of Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) cycles in the European vegetation. Detailed comparison of temperate forest development at these sites during four specific D–O cycles (D–O 16–17, 14, 12 and 8) reveals contrasts between vegetation response at southernmost European latitudes (below 40  N) and at latitudes above 40  N. At southernmost latitudes, marked forest development occurred during all four D–O cycles including D–O 16–17 and 8, while at latitudes above 40  N, forest development was stronger during D–O 14 and 12 than either D–O 16–17 or 8. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Institute of Geosciences, Goethe-Universita ¨t, Frankfurt am Main 60438, Germany. E-mail address: W.Fletcher@em.uni-Frankfurt.de (W.J. Fletcher). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev 0277-3791/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.11.015 Quaternary Science Reviews 29 (2010) 2839–2864