A high-resolution speleothem proxy record of the Late Glacial in the European Alps: extending the NALPS19 record until the beginning of the Holocene

Previous research has shown that speleothems from the northern rim of the European Alps captured submillennial-scale climate change during the last glacial period with exceptional sensitivity and resolution, mimicking Greenland ice-core records. Here we extend this so-called NALPS19 record across the Late Glacial using two stalagmites which grew continuously into the Holocene. Both specimens show the same high-amplitude δ¹⁸O signal as Greenland ice cores down to decadal resolution. The start of the warming at the onset of the equivalent of Greenland Interstadial (GI) GI-1e at 14.66 ± 0.18 ka agrees with the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP) (14.64 ± 0.28 ka) and comprised a temperature rise of about 5–6 °C. The transition from the equivalent of GI-1a into the equivalent of Greenland Stadial (GS) GS-1 (broadly equivalent to the Younger Dryas) commenced at 13.02 ± 0.13 ka which is consistent with NGRIP (12.80 ± 0.26 ka) within errors. The onset of the Holocene started at 11.78 ± 0.14 ka (11.65 ± 0.10 ka at NGRIP) and involved a warming of about 4–5 °C. In contrast to δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C values show no response to (sub)millennial climate shifts due to strong rock-buffering and only record a long-term trend of soil development starting with the rapid warming at 14.7 ka.