An 8,000 Years Alpine Ice‐Core Record of Climate and Dust: The Role of Saharan Dust
Abstract Transport of Saharan dust over Europe impacts climate and nutrient input to ecosystems, but its variability over the past is poorly documented and understood. Because Alpine ice potentially provides an archive of past dust deposition, here we used an ice core record of stable water isotopes and dust‐related chemical species from Dôme du Goûter (DDG, French Alps) to assess past climate and dust deposition in western Europe over the past 8,000 years. The DDG chemical records including calcium, a potential good proxy of Saharan dust, show a dust increase associated with Saharan aridification following the African Humid Period some 3,600 years ago. The more recent records spanning the last two millennia indicate warmer, drier, and dustier conditions during the Roman, Medieval, and Modern periods than during the Little Ice Ages, thereby elucidating a generally consistent relationship between Saharan dust deposition over western Europe and past climate.
Authors
- Susanne Preunkert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6039-6049)
- Sophia M. Wensman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3830-6510)
- Nathan Chellman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1117-1046)
- G. Bergametti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0839-1048)
- Joseph R. McConnell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9051-5240)
- Michel Legrand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7825-5749)
- François Dulac (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4072-2799)
- K. Desboeufs
- U. Dayan
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- Université Paris-Est Créteil (FR)
- Université Paris Cité (FR)
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Paris-Est Sup (FR)
- Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (FR)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (FR)
- Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés (FR)
- Desert Research Institute (US)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2026-06-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2026gl123787
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation