Abstract
Stable carbon isotope data that span part of the last glacial–interglacial transition (ca. 14-9 ka 14C BP; ca. 15–11 ka cal. BP), and which derive from organ-specific plant macrofossils recovered from two lake sediment profiles in the UK and one in Norway, are compared. The recorded temporal variations show similar trends, which, over a millennial time-scale appear to parallel the main drift in δ18O as determined for the GRIP ice-core. It is postulated that some smaller scale variations in the δ13C profiles may reflect the shorter term oscillations in δ18O values evident in the GRIP record, although this is less certain. Overall, however, the results suggest that stable carbon isotope measurements based on organ-specific terrestrial plant macrofossils may provide (i) a means for establishing correlations between terrestrial successions and (ii) additional paleoenvironmental information, as the apparent ‘shadowing’ of the GRIP record indicates a common forcing mechanism for both Greenland δ18O and northwest European δ13C variations. From the evidence available we suggest that the recorded δ13C variations reflect fluctuations in air temperature and/or changes in water vapour pressure in the atmosphere. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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