Submillennial environmental fluctuations during marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 2: a comparative analysis of diatom and pollen evidence from Lago Grande di Monticchio, South Italy

High temporal resolution pollen and diatom analyses carried out on sediments from Lago Grande di Monticchio span the interval 23 700–21 200 calendar yr. BP, a brief interstadial during marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 2. Both records exhibit marked changes that are interpreted as responses to climatic changes. The diatoms and terrestrial vegetation appear to respond at the same time; any relative lag in the response of the vegetation was less than the ca. 60 yr resolution of the two records. The interval coincides, at least in part, with the Campo Imperatore Stade, when the Gran Sasso ice sheet reached its maximum extent and water level was high in the Fucino Lake. Correlation of the marked environmental oscillation with one of the Dansgaard–Oeschger Events recorded by stable oxygen isotope records from the Greenland ice–cap is proposed. This follows an interval interpreted as having a cold dry climate and correlated with a Heinrich Event in the North Atlantic. Together the two records enable a multifactorial interpretation of the palaeoclimate changes that characterise the oscillation, providing additional insight to that obtained from studies of ice and ocean-sediment cores, especially with respect to the seasonality of temperature and precipitation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.