the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Landscape reconstructions for Europe during the late Last Glacial (60–20 ka BP): A pollen-based REVEALS approach
Abstract. Vegetation change during the Last Glacial period in Europe plays a crucial role in better understanding the ecosystem dynamics response to abrupt climate change. Yet, quantitative reconstructions of land-cover primarily focus on the Holocene period and aim to disentangle the impact of anthropogenic and climatic stress on the vegetation. Here, we present temporally continuous land-cover reconstructions from Europe for the latter half of the Last Glacial period (60–20 ka BP) using the “Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites” (REVEALS) model. The pollen-based REVEALS model uniquely factors in plant-specific parameters, such as relative pollen productivity (RPP) and pollen fall speed to model pollen dispersal and thus provides more accurate representation of past vegetation cover than fossil pollen data. We compiled a total of 61 datasets from Europe and its bordering regions to model land-cover estimates across 60 time steps in 1000 year increments. By grouping the 38 analysed taxa into 5 land-cover types (LCTs), we simplify the interpretation of our results and demonstrate this using three crucial periods during the Last Glacial: Greenland Interstadial 14 (GI-14), Greenland Stadial 9 (GS-9), and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). These periods provide insight into stadial-interstadial vegetation variability as well as extreme glacial conditions, which seem to play a fundamental role in the demographic developments of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. Additionally, we compare the REVEALS land-cover estimates to raw pollen data and also provide REVEALS standard errors and discuss the reliability of our results as well as potential avenues to further improve the reliability of REVEALS estimates. To facilitate the use and interpretation of our data for a wide scientific audience, we developed the browser-based application PALVEG (https://oakern.shinyapps.io/PALVEG/), which requires no prior programming experience and dynamically generates maps based on user input.
- Preprint
(2267 KB) - Metadata XML
- BibTeX
- EndNote
Status: final response (author comments only)
-
RC1: 'Comment on essd-2024-306', Anonymous Referee #1, 01 May 2025
This study holds significant scientific and methodological value for reconstructing vegetation cover in Europe during the late Last Glacial period (60-20 ka BP). The authors applied the REVEALS approach based on numerous palynological records. An important methodological contribution of the work is the comparison between REVEALS results and palynological analysis data, along with attempts to explain the obtained discrepancies.
The authors present interesting data for stadials and interstadials of MIS 3 - an important yet controversial period of the Late Pleistocene. I found lacking the attempts to explain the obtained data for northeastern Europe, where unlike other regions, the reconstructed forest cover decreases during interstadial warming and humidification. What climatic mechanism could lead to such consequences? For instance, during the Holocene, warming and increased moisture typically result in northward forest expansion.
The paper repeatedly mentions that understanding vegetation variability during stadial-interstadial cycles and extreme glacial conditions is highly significant for demographic developments among Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, particularly regarding Neanderthal replacement by Homo sapiens. However, this aspect remains largely unexplored. Perhaps the authors have insights into how described natural conditions and climatic fluctuations influenced the development of human communities in Europe?
Specific comments:
Line 316: South-West Asia? Why Asia?
Figs 3,4,5 B: What do the pollen percentages represent?Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-306-RC1 -
AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Oliver A. Kern, 14 May 2025
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2024-306/essd-2024-306-AC1-supplement.pdf
-
AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Oliver A. Kern, 14 May 2025
-
RC2: 'Comment on essd-2024-306', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 May 2025
This work provides a landscape database reconstruction for the Late Pleistocene period (75,000-15,000 ka BP), online and free to use, using the already well used REVEALS approach. I found the background and methods well explained and clear ; I particularly appreciated the part explaining why raw pollen data are not directly proportional to the vegetation cover of a given species. It is significant achievement and will likely be of large us in different scientific communities.
However, there are a few small aspects that I didn't quite understand.
1-/ Line 304 : « The stadial-interstadial variability is primarily characterised by an increase in open-land percentages. » this sentences is unclear: it could be an increase or a decrease depending on the period (stadial or interstadial. Maybe something like « The stadial-interstadial variability is primarily characterised by a change in open-land percentages. » or be more specific as to the succession of changes from stadial to interstadial.
2-/ Line 305 : Is it really northward? My understanding is that it should be southward as the high latitudes are mainly covered by herbaceous. The tree-line shift to higher latitudes must have been with trees on south and herbaceous on north. Please clarify.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-306-RC2 -
AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Oliver A. Kern, 14 May 2025
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2024-306/essd-2024-306-AC2-supplement.pdf
-
AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Oliver A. Kern, 14 May 2025
Model code and software
Pollen-based land-cover reconstruction in R using the REVEALS method Oliver A. Kern https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12625221
PALVEG - Visualisation tool for pollen-based REVEALS land-cover reconstructions Oliver A. Kern https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12624842
Viewed
HTML | XML | Total | BibTeX | EndNote | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
364 | 77 | 19 | 460 | 25 | 26 |
- HTML: 364
- PDF: 77
- XML: 19
- Total: 460
- BibTeX: 25
- EndNote: 26
Viewed (geographical distribution)
Country | # | Views | % |
---|
Total: | 0 |
HTML: | 0 |
PDF: | 0 |
XML: | 0 |
- 1