A contribution towards the reconstruction of Eemian vegetation and climate in central Europe: first results of pollen and oxygen-isotope investigations from Mondsee, Austria

In this paper, the results of pollen analysis and oxygen-isotope investigations of two new cores from Mondsee are discussed. The climatic progression from the end of the penultimate glaciation to the end of the Eemian interglacial is compared with reconstructions from Bispingen and Grobern, northern Germany. The rise in temperature, between the Pinus phase and the climate optimum in the Corylus phase, appears to have occurred in two steps. Evidence for climatic deterioration is first recorded during the Picea-Pinus phase, i.e. after the Carpinus phase. These reconstructions are in agreement with those based on the Grobern pollen data, but contrast with recent reconstructions based on the Bispingen pollen profile and the GRIP ice core from Greenland.