Vegetation Changes during MIS 11c. Palynological Analysis from a sediment succession from Fucino Basin (central Italy)

The study of sedimentary records can provide insight into past climatic patterns and how ecosystems adapted to warmer temperature conditions. The Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11c (ca. 426-396 kyr) emerges as one of the most unusually lengthy and warm interglacials of the past 800 kyrs, with a global temperature ca. 0.5-0.7 ºC higher than the pre-industrial Holocene. The Fucino Basin (Central Italy) contains a continuous lacustrine succession for the last 445 kyrs including MIS 11 and the Mid-Bruhens Event (MBE) dated using tephrochronology. Palynological analysis is a proxy for environmental and paleoclimatic interpretations through the observation of the evolution in vegetation and algae assemblages driven by precipitation and temperature changes. Here we present preliminary palynological results of the Fucino sedimentary succession between MIS 11c and the glacial termination V (glacial-interglacial transition between MIS 12 and MIS11). Our results suggest that fluctuations in humidity are primarily responsible for vegetation changes, as evidenced by the exponential growth of Abies pollen. Furthermore, the warm interglacial was characterised by millennial-scale climate variability, with several periods when the temperature decreased and the aridity increased, as testified by the decrease in Abies population and the increase of Poaceae, Artemisia, Amaranthaceae, Hippophäe, Ephedra and Pinus. We were able to reconstruct the evolution of the lake level and its productivity by analysing the non-Pollen Palynomorphs, such as algae, and geochemical proxies. The study of the sedimentary record of the Fucino basin has then allowed us to reconstruct the evolution of plant and hydrological systems and their response to environmental factors during a period that was warmer than the pre-industrial Holocene, which could be used as analogous for current climate conditions.