Climatic variability during the last interglacial inferred from geochemical proxies in the Lake El'gygytgyn sediment record Laura Cunningham a, ⁎, Hendrik Vogel b,c , Norbert Nowaczyk d , Volker Wennrich b , Olaf Juschus b , Per Persson e , Peter Rosén a a Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC), Umeå University, SE-98107 Abisko, Sweden b University of Cologne, Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Zuelpicher Str. 49a, D-50674 Cologne, Germany c University of Bern, Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Baltzerstr, 1+3, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland d GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Section 3.3, Telegrafenberg, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany e Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, SE-90187 Umeå, Sweden abstract article info Article history: Received 4 October 2012 Received in revised form 7 June 2013 Accepted 8 June 2013 Available online 15 June 2013 Keywords: Palaeolimnology Climate change Far-eastern Arctic Russia Primary productivity Glacial termination Last interglacial period The Last Interglacial Period (LIP) is often regarded as a good analogue for potential climatic conditions under predicted global warming scenarios. Despite this, there is still debate over the nature, duration and frequency of climatic changes during this period. One particularly contentious issue has been the apparent evidence of climatic instability identified in many marine cores but seemingly lacking from many terrestrial archives, es- pecially within the Arctic, a key region for global climate change research. In this paper, geochemical records from Lake El'gygytgyn, north-eastern Russia, are used to infer past climatic changes during the LIP from with- in the high Arctic. With a sampling resolution of ~ 20–~ 90 years, these records offer the potential for detailed, high-resolution palaeoclimate reconstruction. This study shows that the LIP commenced in central Chukotka ~ 129 thousand years ago (ka), with the warmest climatic conditions occurring between ~ 128 and 127 ka be- fore being interrupted by a short-lived cold reversal. Mild climatic conditions then persisted until ~122 ka when a marked reduction in the sedimentation rate suggests a decrease in precipitation. A further climatic deterioration at ~ 118 ka marks the return to glacial conditions. This study highlights the value of incorporat- ing several geochemical proxies when inferring past climatic conditions, thus providing the potential to iden- tify signals related to environmental change within the catchment. We also demonstrate the importance of considering how changes in sedimentation rate influence proxy records, in order to develop robust palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Rapid warming observed within the latter part of the 20th century raised many questions regarding the rate at which global climate can change (Kelts, 1992). In answer to this, palaeoclimatic data from a va- riety of proxies have demonstrated multiple, rapid shifts from full gla- cial conditions to milder interglacial conditions (e.g. Petit et al., 1999). For example, the isotopic composition of ice-cores from Greenland suggests a 10 °C increase in temperature occurred within a decade (Alley, 2000; Steffensen et al., 2008). Furthermore, episodes of abrupt climatic change occur repeatedly within the past 100 thousand years (kyr), as evidenced by both terrestrial and marine palaeoclimate re- cords (Dansgaard et al., 1993; Genty et al., 2003). Since polar regions have been glaciated for most of this time, it is often argued that large, abrupt changes in climate could not occur without high volumes of ice present in the northern and southern hemispheres (Denton, 2000). Abrupt, large scale, climatic changes have been reported dur- ing the Holocene (the present interglacial period) from many differ- ent geographical regions (Rohling et al., 2002; Moros et al., 2004), however, there is still limited evidence for abrupt climate changes during the Last Interglacial Period (LIP) when ice volumes were even lower than today (Chapman and Shackleton, 1999; Karabanov et al., 2000). The higher number of palaeoclimate records available for the LIP, relative to earlier interglacials, means that the LIP is often used as an analogue for the Holocene and to infer potential impacts of contin- ued global warming under reduced ice conditions (Rioual et al., 2001; McManus et al., 2002; Tzedakis, 2003). These research efforts have, however, increased uncertainty as to the temporal and spatial extent of climatic changes during this period, partly due to contradictory re- sults produced by different proxy records. To help address this issue, and to understand the rate, extent, and mechanisms of climate change, several palaeoclimate records covering the last glacial– Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 386 (2013) 408–414 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE, United Kingdom. Tel.: +44 23 9284 2513; fax: +44 23 9284 2512. E-mail address: laura.cunningham@port.ac.uk (L. Cunningham). 0031-0182/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.06.009 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo