Evidence for solar influence in a Holocene speleothem record (Père Noël cave, SE Belgium)

Abstract

We present a decadal-centennial scale Holocene climate record based on trace elements contents from a 65 cm stalagmite from Belgian Père Noël cave. “Père Noël” (PN) stalagmite covers the last 12.7 ka according to U/Th dating. High spatial resolution measurements of trace elements (Sr, Ba and Mg) were done by Laser-Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Trace elements profiles were interpreted as environmental and climate changes in the Han-sur-Lesse region. Power spectrum estimators and continuous wavelet transform were applied on trace elements time series to detect any statistically significant periodicities in the PN stalagmite. Spectral analyses reveal decadal to millennial periodicities (i.e., 68–75, 133–136, 198–209, 291–358, 404–602, 912–1029 and 2365–2670 yr) in the speleothem record. Results were compared to reconstructed sunspot number data to determine whether solar signal is presents in PN speleothem. The occurrence of significant solar periodicities (i.e., cycles of Gleissberg, de Vries, unnamed 500 years, Eddy and Hallstatt) supports for an impact of solar forcing on PN speleothem trace element contents. Moreover, several intervals of significant rapid winter change were detected during the Holocene at 10.3, 9.3–9.5, around 8.2, 6.4–6.2, 4.7–4.5, and around 2.7 ka BP. Those intervals are similar to the cold winter events evidenced in different natural paleoclimate archives, suggesting common climate forcing mechanisms related to changes in solar irradiance.