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from a number of marine and terrestrial sites in the North Atlantic region, but is
only partly documented in the NGRIP (North Greenland Ice Core Project mem-
bers 2004 ) ice core. A delay between the beginning of MIS 5e and that of
the European terrestrial Eemian was demonstrated for the first time by Sánchez
Goñi et al. ( 1999 ) based on a land-sea correlation between the European pollen
zones and the marine isotope stages (discussed by Kukla et al. 2002 ) . High-
resolution Eemian marine shelf records (here correlated with MIS 5e) from northern
Europe are, however, very scarce and usually only contain fragmentary paleoen-
vironmental information. The same is valid for the early Weichselian stadials
and interstadials (MIS 5d to 5a), which were, however, fully recovered in the,
e.g., NorthGRIP ice core. Data from marine sediments in the Nordic Seas show
three substantial sea surface temperature fluctuations during MIS 5e (Fronval
and Jansen 1996 ) . These results imply that the Last Interglacial at high north-
ern latitudes was characterized by rapid changes in the polar front movement,
ocean circulation, and oceanic heat fluxes. This may have resulted in notice-
able temperature changes in neighboring land areas, which is different from the
Holocene climate development, with only minor fluctuations on a general cooling
trend.
Records from Eemian lacustrine and marine sediments (MIS 5e), presently sit-
uated on shore, show that the Eemian in the Baltic Sea Basin (BSB) began with a
lacustrine phase during ca. 300 years before marine conditions were established
(Kristensen and Knudsen 2006 ) . A pathway existed between the BSB and the
Barents Sea through Karelia during the first ca. 2-2.5 ka of the interglacial due
to the large isostatic depression as a result of the extensive Saalian ice sheet which
probably was much thicker than the Weichselian ice sheet (Fig. 4.2 ) . It is debatable
as to what degree this pathway was of importance for the general circulation in the
BSB and the climate of north Europe (Funder et al. 2002 ) . It did, however, have
significant effect on oceanography during the first ca. 4 ka of the Eemian Baltic
Sea, and possibly also on the surrounding terrestrial climate (Björck et al. 2000 ) ,
resulting in a strong W-E temperature and salinity gradient with a winter sea sur-
face water temperature ca. 6 higher and a salinity ca. 15‰ higher than today in
the Belt Sea and western BSB. At the same time, lower salinity and colder bottom
water (ca. 2.5 C) conditions prevailed in the eastern BSB. This circulation pattern
with high salinities may have created strong salinity stratification and the develop-
ment of a permanent halocline resulting in hypoxic bottom conditions during a great
part of the Eemian. These conditions resemble in many ways the development of
the Baltic Sea during the last 8,000 years and today's situation. Also, the difference
between the warm and well-ventilated southwestern Eemian BSB and the cold, stag-
nant conditions of its easternmost parts implies that the ocean-continental climate
gradient from the west to the east in N Europe was steeper than during the Holocene
(Funder et al. 2002 ) . After ca. 6 ka into the interglacial, the Eemian Baltic Sea
was characterized by a falling sea level and decreased salinity seen in diatom and
foraminifera records (Eiríksson et al. 2006 , Kristensen and Knudsen 2006 ) , but its
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