0012-821X/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2004.12.010 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 540002628; fax: + 33 556488408. E-mail addresses: mf.sanchezgoni@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr (M.F. Sa ´nchez Gon ˜i)8 loutre@astr.ucl.ac.be (M.F. Loutre)8 michel.crucifix@metoffice.gov.uk (M. Crucifix)8 Odile.Peyron@Univ-FComte.FR (O. Peyron)8 xesantos@udc.es (L. Santos)8 j.duprat@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr (J. Duprat)8 b.malaize@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr (B. Malaize ´)8 jl.turon@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr (J.-L. Turon)8 jp.peypouquet@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr (J.-P. Peypouquet). 1 Tel.: +32 10473299; fax: +32 10474722. 2 Tel.: +44 1392884105; fax: +44 1392885681. 3 Tel.: +33 381666669; fax: +33 381666568. 4 Tel.: +34 981167000; fax: +34 981167065. 5 Tel.: +33 540008865; fax: + 33 556488408. 6 Tel.: +33 540008794; fax: + 33 556488408. 7 Tel.: +33 540008384; fax: +33 556488408. 8 Tel.: +33 540008857; fax: +33 556488408. Increasing vegetation and climate gradient in Western Europe over the Last Glacial Inception (122–110 ka): data-model comparison M.F. Sa ´nchez Gon ˜i a, * , M.F. Loutre b,1 , M. Crucifix c,2 , O. Peyron d,3 , L. Santos e,4 , J. Duprat f,5 , B. Malaize ´ f,6 , J.-L. Turon f,7 , J.-P. Peypouquet a,8 a EPHE, DGO, UMR-CNRS 5805, Universite ´ Bordeaux 1, Avenue des Faculte ´s, 33405 Talence, France b Universite ´ catholique de Louvain, Chemin du Cyclotron, 2, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium c Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, Met Office, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, EXI 3PB, U.K. d Laboratoire de Chrono-Ecologie, UMR-CNRS 6565, Universite ´ de Besanc ¸on, 16 rte de Gray, 25030 Besanc ¸on, France e Universidade da Corun ˜a, Facultade de Ciencias, Campus da Zapateira s/n15071 A Corun ˜a, Spain f DGO, UMR-CNRS 5805, Universite ´ Bordeaux 1, Avenue des Faculte ´s, 33405 Talence, France Received 18 June 2004; received in revised form 10 December 2004; accepted 16 December 2004 Editor: E. Bard Abstract High-resolution terrestrial (pollen) and marine (planktic and benthic isotopes, coarse fraction, and N. pachyderma (s)) analyses have been performed in the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 interval of IMAGES core MD99-2331 retrieved in the northwestern Iberian margin. This study shows the occurrence of a Zeifen Interstadial/Stadial succession on land and in the ocean during the first part of MIS 5e. In northwestern Iberia, the Eemian is marked from 126 to 122 ka by the development of deciduous Quercus forest at the same time as Mediterranean forest colonised southern Iberia, and deciduous Quercus-Corylus forest occupied northernmost European regions. From 121 to 115 ka Carpinus betulus forest developed in NW Iberia indicating a winter cooling by 2 8C on land and an increase in annual precipitation by 100–200 mm along with a Sea Surface Temperature Earth and Planetary Science Letters 231 (2005) 111 – 130 www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl