Climate and solar variability recorded in Holocene laminated sediments - a preliminary assessment

Comparison of the properties of the laminated sediments of Loch Ness, Scotland with a range of climatic and palaeoclimatic indices shows that in a short core spanning the period 1321-1963 AD, the signal of lamination thickness is significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with data on the number of ice weeks off Iceland, the index of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and with Zurich sunspot number. Power spectra identified in lamination thickness data for both short and long cores indicate the presence of peaks at low frequencies compatible with the NAG, the "11-year" sunspot cycle, the Hale (or "double sunspot") cycle, and the Gleissberg (88 year) solar cycle. Several peaks also occur at intermediate, and at higher periodicity, however, and general spectral density is weak, so that these results are regarded as preliminary. The sediments of Loch Ness appear, however, to contain a record of the influence of the North Atlantic Ocean, and via that, solar variability, upon the climate of Northern Scotland, spanning recent centuries. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.