Climate during the Eemian in north-central Europe — a critical review of the palaeobotanical and stable isotope data from central Germany

This paper reviews the evidence from terrestrial palaeoenvironmental records in north-central Europe and, in particular, central Germany, which relates to the controversial proposition that there were strong climate oscillations during the last interglacial (oxygen isotope substage 5e). In contrast to the evidence from the GRIP ice core at Summit, Greenland, and a recent palaeoclimate reconstruction based on the pollen profile from Bispingen, Germany, the evaluation of the palaeobotanical and the stable isotope data presented here strongly suggests relatively stable temperature for most of the Eemian and with instability confined to the beginning and end of the interglacial. High amplitude temperature variations can be seen in both the Early Weichselian pollen and isotope records. It is argued that this pattern of climate development is applicable to most of continental north-central Europe.