Regional differences in the Lateglacial climate of northern Europe based on coleopteran analysis

The termination of the Last Glaciation, the Lateglacial period, was characterised by highly unstable climates which, in northern Europe, oscillated between warm temperate and arctic conditions. Different indicators of past climate have provided contrasting views an the timing and intensity of these climatic changes. Here we present preliminary reconstructions of the thermal climate interpreted from subfossil coleopteran assemblages from Britain, Norway, Sweden and Poland, in which regional differences can be ascribed to the varying influence of, (a) the North Atlantic surface water temperatures, (b) the proximity of the Fennoscandian ice sheet and (c) the ice free continent. Quantification of the thermal climate enables these local differences to be resolved.