Characterizing the Eemian-Weichselian transition in northwestern Europe with three multiproxy speleothem archives from two Belgian cave systems (Han-sur-Lesse and Remouchamps)

Interglacial to glacial transitions represent the most drastic turnovers in the Quaternary climate system. Yet, millennial-scaled climate variability and stochastic internal variability that result in these transitions remain still poorly understood. Here, three speleothem archives from two different cave systems in Belgium (Han-sur-Lesse and Remouchamps) are investigated using a multiproxy approach in order to characterize the last interglacial to glacial transition. The studied samples roughly span the period between 125 ka and 100 ka, covering a large part of the Eemian and early Weichselian. The speleothems show a high reproducibility for δC, which is interpreted as a proxy for past vegetation activity, controlled by vegetation assembly above the cave. All three speleothems show a drastic increase in δC between 118 to 117 ka, reflecting a rapid change of vegetation assembly from last interglacial temperate tree species towards glacial more open grass vegetation. This event shows a strong affinity in terms of timing and climatic expression with the Late Eemian Aridity Pulse (LEAP) at 118 ± 1 ka, identified in pollen records from Western Germany. Aligning the chronologies of the two independently dated Han1 2

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