Terrestrial molluscs and temperature: a new quantitative transfer function

Terrestrial molluscs and temperature: a new quantitative transfer function. Terrestrial molluscs are reliable environmental proxies in Quaternary sequences. Correlations between the geographic distribution of the species and the minimum mean monthly temperature and the annual thermal magnitude distributions have been characterised. New temperature estimates based on the Mutual Climatic Range method were then performed. The latitudinal thermal gradient has been reconstructed using modern assemblages from Western Europe, and a calibration on modern temperature values has been calculated. The application to the sequence of Achenheim (Alsace, France) allowed the reconstruction of the temperature variations of the last climatic cycle. (C) 2002 Academie des sciences / Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.