The late-Holocene tufa decline in Europe: Myth or reality?

International audienceIn 1993, Goudie and co-authors named the postulate that there would be a marked decline in the deposition of calcareous tufa in Europe since ca. 2500 BP 'the late-Holocene tufa decline'. However, the growing development of investigation on calcareous tufas and considerable improvement in dating methods, especially radiocarbon dating, has provided reliable evidence of deposits developing until our present days. I thus discuss the reality of the decline, reviewing 62 tufa sites in Europe and their time distribution based both on radiocarbon dates and biochronological data and distinguishing different cases depending on tufa size and types. I demonstrate that the late-Holocene tufa decline is actually a general view of a rather complex tendency: after a maximum during the Atlantic period, fluvial tufas are systematically affected by a decline from ca. 5 ka cal. BP but no general trend is shown in the development of proximal (spring-fed) or lacustrine tufas. This observation is likely to result from the increasing impact of human activity (mainly deforestation) on landscapes, and more specifically on fluvial environments, from the Bronze Age

High potential of calcareous tufas for integrative multidisciplinary studies and prospects for archaeology in Europe

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Comparison of temperature and humidity during MIS 11 and MIS 5e interglacials with the Holocene using stable isotopes in tufa deposits from northern France

International audienceMany recent palaeoclimatic studies have focused on Pleistocene interglacials, especially Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 5e and 11, as analogs to our modern interglacial (MIS 1). In continental area, archives allowing comparison between interglacials remain scarce. Calcareous tufa deposits, as they are characteristic of these periods and can provide long, almost continuous, palaeoclimatic records through their isotopic content, appear highly suitable for such investigation. In this paper, δ 18 O and δ 13 C values from the three well-dated tufas of Saint-Germainle-Vasson, Caours, and La Celle are combined to compare temperature and moisture conditions prevailing during MIS 1, 5e, and 11, in the Paris Basin. Both Pleistocene interglacials, and especially their optima, appear stronger than the Holocene: MIS 11 was wetter and warmer than both the Holocene and MIS 5e, which itself experienced wetter conditions than the Holocene. These observations are consistent with palaeontological data from the studied sites, especially malacological assemblages, which record, as at other European tufa sites, a relative depletion of molluscan diversity during the Holocene compared with the Pleistocene (MIS 5 and 11) interglacials

Paleoenvironmental and biostratigraphical data from the Resson tufa (Aube, France): a new Eemian record in Northwestern Europe.

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RE-EXAMINATION AND NEW DATA ON THE LATE PLEISTOCENE MACROFLORA FROM RESSON TUFA, FRANCE

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