BRITISH LATE-GLACIAL AND HOLOCENE CLIMATIC HISTORY RECONSTRUCTED FROMLAND SNAIL ASSEMBLAGES

We present a high-resolution record from a late glacial-Holocene land- snail succession from southeast England. Temperature estimates, derive d from the best analogue technique, indicate a cooling trend, between 14 500 and 12 600 calendar years before present (cal yr B.P.) of 4 deg rees C in summer and 8 degrees C in winter preceding the Younger Dryas event. The intense warming following the Younger Dryas stadial corres ponds to increasing values of the same magnitude in 600 yr. A cooling event, weaker than the Younger Dryas, of 1 degrees C in both seasons i s recorded between 8000 and 8500 cal yr B.P. These reconstructions fro m a European Holocene continental sequence are in agreement,vith fluct uations already described in North Atlantic and Mediterranean cores, i ce cores, and African and Tibetan lake records.