Environmental and climate reconstruction of the late-glacial-Holocene transition from a lake sediment sequence in Aubrac, French Massif Central: Chironomid and diatom evidence

•Chironomid-inferred temperatures (CI-T) ranging from the onset of the late-glacial to Early-Holocene has been reconstructed.•CI-T have been validated by cross-correlating with diatoms and pollen analyses.•Climate events such as, the GI-1e warming, the GS1 cooling and the early Holocene improvement have been recorded.•Cool regional conditions prevailed during the LGI and early-Holocene in the Aubrac region, which is always the case today due to temperature inversion processes and cool air stagnation in winter.

The analysis of fossil chironomid and diatom assemblages from a sedimentary record from Les Roustières peat bog (Massif Central, France, 1196 m asl) allows the reconstruction of past environmental and climate changes during the late-glacial and early Holocene. Chironomid assemblages showed that the infilling of the palaeolake had commenced during the Oldest Dryas (GS-2b) as suggested by the rapid decrease in chironomid species associated with the cold and deep zone of lakes and by their replacement by littoral and eutrophic taxa. Quantitative July temperature reconstructions, based on the chironomid data, suggest that mean July air temperature (Tjul) ranged between 6 °C and 11 °C at the termination of the Oldest Dryas period (GS-2b). Climate began to warm at the start of the Bølling period (GI-1e), between 15,000 and 14,800 cal yr BP, with a rise in Tjul of about 4 °C. This climate warming is contemporaneous with lake eutrophication as suggested by diatoms and chironomids. Maximum temperatures of 13–14 °C were reached around 13,600 cal yr BP during the Allerød period (GI-1c–GI-1a). The Younger Dryas period (GS-1) is marked by a return to cold conditions with Tjul of about 10 °C during a first phase, then 13 °C in its terminal part. A probable increase in the duration of the ice-cover may have favoured arctic and alpine diatom species. The early-Holocene climate improvement is marked by a rise in Tjul of about 3 °C.