Climate variability during the last interglacial-glacial cycle in NW Eurasia

In this chapter special reference will be made to the south-eastern sector of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet, which extends from Finland to the Valdai-Vologda area of the Russian Plain, into which region the ice advanced during the LateWeichselian. This is the area where much new data have been collected in recent years from terrestrial sequences, and where the history of glacier fluctuations during the Valdai glaciation can now be reconstructed in considerably more detail than hitherto (Lunkka et al. 2001; Saarnisto and Saarinen 2001). Data obtained from the SE sector of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet provide more precise dates on the growth and decay of ice better than are available from other parts of Eurasia. The aim of the present chapter is: (i) to describe the fluctuations of Eurasian glaciers since the last (i.e., Eemian/Mikulino) interglacial and assess their influence on palaeohydrology; (ii) to summarise biostratigraphical data available for the last interglacial/glacial cycle in that area; and (iii) to compare these data with other proxy data on climate.