Environmental variability between the penultimate deglaciation and the mid Eemian: Insights from Tana che Urla (central Italy) speleothem trace element record Eleonora Regattieri a, c, * , Giovanni Zanchetta b, c, d , Russell N. Drysdale e, f , Ilaria Isola d , Jon D. Woodhead g , John C. Hellstrom g , Biagio Giaccio a , Alan Greig g , Ilaria Baneschi c , Elissavet Dotsika h a Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, IGAG-CNR, Via Salaria Km. 29.300 Monterotondo, Rome, Italy b Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Via S. Maria 53, 56126 Pisa, Italy c Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse IGG-CNR, Via Moruzzi 1, 56100 Pisa, Italy d Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia INGV, Via della Faggiola 32, Pisa, Italy e School of Geography, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia f EDYTEM, UMR CNRS 5204, Universit e de Savoie-Mont Blanc, 73376 Le Bourget du Lac Cedex, France g School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia h National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos, Athens, Greece article info Article history: Received 6 May 2016 Received in revised form 23 September 2016 Accepted 24 September 2016 Keywords: Speleothem Trace elements Penultimate deglaciation Last Interglacial Central Italy abstract A trace element record (Mg, Sr, Ba, Al, Si, P, Y, Zn) covering the ca.133 ka to ca. 124 ka time interval was acquired from a flowstone core from Tana che Urla Cave (central Italy). It was compared with stable isotope data to investigate the environmental evolution in response to regional and extra-regional climate changes in the period corresponding to the latter part of the Penultimate Deglaciation and the first part of the Last Interglacial (Eemian). Trace element geochemical changes on centennial and millennial time scales responded to changes in hydrological input, variations in the supply and transport of catchment erosion products to the cave, including those linked to intense rainfall events, and to the state of the overlying soil and vegetation. Abrupt increases in precipitation and the progressive devel- opment of soil and vegetation occurred at ca. 132 ka, in response to the development of the global deglacial phase. The major changes in trace element composition are coherent with the previous hy- drological interpretation of speleothem oxygen stable isotope composition (d 18 O) as predominantly a rainfall-amount proxy. However, reduced growth rate persisted until ca. 130 ka, suggesting still depressed temperatures. An abrupt event of climatic deterioration, with marked decrease in precipita- tion and soil degradation, is apparent between ca. 131 and 130 ka. Cool-wet conditions between ca. 132 and 131 ka and the subsequent dry period may represent the local hydrological response to an interval of North Atlantic cooling and ice-rafted-debris (IRD) deposition known as Heinrich event 11 (H11). After 129.6 ka there was a rapid recovery according to all of the studied speleothem properties, indicating the onset of full interglacial conditions. A minor amplitude event of reduced precipitation is recorded within the LIG at ca. 127 ka. The record highlights the growing regional evidence for a complex penultimate deglacial climate involving major reorganization of oceanic and atmospheric patterns. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Investigations of the climate and environmental dynamics associated with deglaciations and the onset of interglacial periods are important for addressing key issues regarding the effects of rapid warming, as is expected in the near future. The Penultimate Deglaciation, corresponding to Termination II (TII) in the marine * Corresponding author. Now at Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Cologne, Zülpicher Str. 49a, Cologne, Germany. E-mail address: eleonora.regattieri@dst.unipi.it (E. Regattieri). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.09.027 0277-3791/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Quaternary Science Reviews 152 (2016) 80e92