an abrupt change in the african monsoon at the end of the younger dryas 1 high resolution studies of variations in the elemental and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of organic matter in cores from lakes malawi tanganyika and bosumtwi tropical africa indicate an abrupt change in the wind driven circulation of these lakes that within the limits of available chronologies was contemporaneous with the end of the younger dryas in the northern hemisphere the change was also coincident with shifts in surface winds recorded in cores from off the west and northeast coasts of africa a range of other proxies indicate that these changes in wind regime were accompanied by a marked increase in precipitation in the northern tropics africa south of 5 10 s on the other hand initially suffered drought conditions together the evidence suggests an abrupt northward translation of the african monsoon system at circa 11 5 0 25 ka b p the data assembled here contribute to a growing body of work showing that the younger dryas was a major climatic excursion in tropical africa furthermore they add substance to recent suggestions that climatic events in the southern hemisphere may have played a significant role in the abrupt demise of the younger dryas

evaluation of the sea ice proxy ip25 against observational and diatom proxy data in the sw labrador sea the recent rapid decline in arctic sea ice cover has increased the need to improve the accuracy of the sea ice component in climate models and to provide detailed long term sea ice concentration records which are only available via proxy data recently the highly branched isoprenoid ip25 identified in marine sediments underlying seasonal sea ice has emerged as a potential sea ice specific proxy for past sea ice cover we tested the reliability of this biomarker as a sea ice proxy against observational sea ice data sea ice concentrations from the global hadisst1 database and against a more established sea ice proxy sea ice diatom abundance in sediments in the south west sw labrador sea furthermore our study location at the southern margin of arctic sea ice drift provided a new environmental setting in which to further test the novel pip25 index our two study sites are located north east ne and south east se of newfoundland where box cores covering the last ca 100 150 years were collected ip25 concentrations are nearly an order of magnitude higher and sea ice diatoms more abundant in sediments from ne of newfoundland where sea ice prevails 2 4 months per year compared to the sediments se of newfoundland where conditions are generally ice free year round the ip25 fluxes ne of newfoundland agree well with multi decadal north atlantic oscillation nao trends in the study area which in previous studies have been shown to affect the climatic and sea ice conditions in the region when assessed against observational sea ice data ip25 appears to be a more sensitive indicator of sea ice variability in this setting compared to sea ice diatoms and proved to be a robust and reliable proxy for reconstructing low frequency variability in past sea ice concentrations the pip25 index results clearly differ from the observed sea ice data underlining that caution needs to be exercised when using the index in different environmental settings

putting the younger dryas cold event into context abstract the younger dryas event is by far the best studied of the millennial scale cold snaps of glacial time yet its origin remains a subject of debate the long held scenario that the younger dryas was a one time outlier triggered by a flood of water stored in proglacial lake agassiz has fallen from favor due to lack of a clear geomorphic signature at the correct time and place on the landscape the recent suggestion that the younger dryas was triggered by the impact of a comet has not gained traction instead evidence from chinese stalagmites suggests that rather than being a freak occurrence the younger dryas is an integral part of the deglacial sequence of events that produced the last termination on a global scale

impact of melting of the laurentide ice sheet on sediments from the upper continental slope off southeastern canada evidence from sm nd isotopesthis article is one of a series of papers published in this special issue on the theme polar climate stability network we present new sm nd isotope data for sediments from a core located on the continental slope of the st pierre bank of canada s east coast the nd analyses indicate that the sediments were derived from two principal sources the north american shield that yields an average early proterozoic isotopic signature and a younger proterozoic signature attributed to appalachian crustal sources the appalachian sourced sediments predominated during the last glacial maximum lgm and were associated with low sedimentation rates 30 cm ka with the exception of a strong north american shield signature present in a detrital carbonate layer that corresponds to heinrich layer 1 h1 the dominance of the appalachian signature decreased subsequent to h1 the appalachian signatures closely follow the distribution of sediments interpreted as locally derived glacial tills while the north american shield signatures follow the distribution of hemipelagic mud that was likely deposited by the labrador current the nd data a

was the younger dryas triggered by a flood draining of a huge lake into the northern atlantic may have triggered a cold period 12 900 years ago the route taken by the flood waters remains unknown

diatom surface sediment assemblages around iceland and their relationships to oceanic environmental variables canonical correspondence analysis of diatoms from surface sediment samples and oceanographic environmental variables shows that summer and winter sea surface temperatures water depth and winter sea surface salinity are the main environmental factors affecting diatom distribution around iceland of these summer sea surface temperature is the most important five diatom assemblages are distinguished and the distribution of these assemblages is clearly correlated with oceanic current patterns in the region the sea ice diatom assemblage is limited to the area where the east greenland current polar water has its strongest influence and the cold diatom assemblage is basically controlled by the less cold east icelandic current modified polar water the mixing diatom assemblage results from the interaction between the cold east greenland and east icelandic currents and the warm irminger current the warm diatom assemblage is located in the area dominated by the irminger current and may be used as an indicator of warm water masses atlantic water the coastal diatom assemblage is the only one strongly influenced by both water depth and summer water temperatures

itrax description and evaluation of a new multi function x ray core scanner a new automated multi function core scanning instrument named itrax has been developed that records optical radiographic and elemental variations from sediment half cores up to 1 8 m long at a resolution as fine as 200 m an intense micro x ray beam focused through a flat capillary waveguide is used to irradiate samples to enable both x radiography and x ray fluorescence xrf analysis data are acquired incrementally by advancing a split core via a programmable stepped motor drive through the flat rectangular section x ray beam traditional xrf determination of element composition in sediments provides high quality data but it takes a considerable time and normally consumes gram quantities of material that is often only available in limited quantities the itrax core scanner non destructively collects optical and x radiographic images and provides high resolution elemental profiles that are invaluable for guiding sample selection for further destructive detailed sampling this paper presents a description of the construction characteristics and capabilities of the itrax system high resolution itrax data obtained from sediment cores are also presented and compared with results from traditional wavelength dispersive xrf analysis at lower resolution finally some recent technical developments linked to the second generation itrax are presented

late holocene summer sea surface temperatures based on a diatom record from the north icelandic shelf diatom assemblages from a high resolution core on the north icelandic shelf reveal a general late holocene cooling trend which is interrupted by three relatively warm periods diatom data from sur

late quaternary paleohydrology of the gulf of st lawrence quebec canada based on diatom analysis abstract postglacial sediments from three cores raised from the gulf of st lawrence along the path of the laurentian channel were analyzed for diatoms a sequence of four distinct zones was defined from oldest to youngest 1 characterized by low diatom concentrations this zone is mainly represented by heavily silicified species delphineis surirella stephanopyxis turris coscinodiscus radiatus and paralia ornata that were probably deposited by glacial drift in a glaciomarine environment from about 18 000 to 14 000 years bp 2 this postglacial sedimentation zone deposited around 13 000 years bp is marked by high diatom concentrations with cold water marine species thalassiosira antarctica resting spores and porosira glacialis the upper part of the zone suggests a gradual warming with the appearance of temperate water species bacterosira bathyomphala and chaetoceros spp both resting spores and vegetative cells 3 an important cooling of surface temperatures is noticed by the resurgence of cold species porosira glacialis thalassiosira antarctica resting spores and thalassiosira hyalina this zone is associated with the younger dryas chronozone dated from 10 800 to 10 300 years bp this interval is also characterized by two marked freshwater pulses coming from the outflow of laurentide ice sheet meltwater on the surface layer of the goldthwait sea although well defined in the northwestern gulf area core 90 031 015 the influence of this meltwater decreases considerably or even disappears in cabot strait core 89 007 111 and offshore core 90 031 044 evidence of reduced postglacial glacial runoff on surface water supports the conclusion that it could not have generated the younger dryas cooling episode 4 the diatom assemblages from 10 000 years bp through recent correspond to the progressive establishment of modern like surface water conditions

abrupt increase in greenland snow accumulation at the end of the younger dryas event the warming at the end of the last glaciation was characterized by a series of abrupt returns to glacial climate the best known of which is the younger dryas event1 despite much study of the causes of this event and the mechanisms by which it ended many questions remain unresolved1 oxygen isotope data from greenland ice cores2 4 suggest that the younger dryas ended abruptly over a period of about 50 years dust concentrations2 4 in these cores show an even more rapid transition 20 years this extremely short timescale places severe constraints on the mechanisms underlying the transition but dust concentrations can reflect subtle changes in atmospheric circulation which need not be associated with a large change in climate here we present results from a new greenland ice core gisp2 showing that snow accumulation doubled rapidly from the younger dryas event to the subsequent preboreal interval possibly in one to three years we also find that the accumulation rate change from the oldest dryas to the bo11ing allerod warm period was large and abrupt the extreme rapidity of these changes in a variable that directly represents regional climate implies that the events at the end of the last glaciation may have been responses to some kind of threshold or trigger in the north atlantic climate system

vegetation response to abrupt climate changes in western europe from 45 to 14 7k cal a bp the bergsee lacustrine record black forest germany

exotic pollen as an indicator of variable atmospheric circulation over the labrador sea region during the mid to late holocene variability in the abundance of exotic non native pollen in sediment cores has long been considered as a potential proxy for changing atmospheric circulation but the difficulty of gaining sufficient total exotic pollen and the incomplete under standing of atmospheric pollen transport patterns has hindered its application in light of recent advances in the study of pollen transport we present an exotic pollen record from two fjord sediment cores taken from the west placentia bay newfoundland and east narsaq sund greenland labrador sea as a basis for studying variations in regional atmospheric circulation the two cores cover the last ca 5500 years and indicate a shift in dominant spring summer air masses at ca 2000 southern greenland and 3000 cal a bp newfoundland transporting reduced concentrations of pollen from southerly and south westerly vegetation zones this may suggest a shift away from more dominantly zonal atmospheric circulation a feature of positive north atlantic oscillation years to more frequent meridional circulation these results support sea ice sea surface temperature proxy reconstructions from newfoundland investigated as part of the same project which also suggest increased winter atmospheric circulation during the early part of the time period studied in this region more positive north atlantic oscillation years and therefore more zonal atmospheric circulation are associated with increased atmospheric circulation in both the winter and the summer seasons copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

rapid oceanic and atmospheric changes during the younger dryas cold period the younger dryas event which began approximately 12 900 years ago was a period of rapid cooling in the northern hemisphere driven by large scale reorganizations of patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation 1 3 environmental changes during this period have been documented by both proxy based reconstructions 3 and model simulations 4 but there is currently no consensus on the exact mechanisms of onset stabilization or termination of the younger dryas 5 8 here we present high resolution records from two sediment cores obtained from lake krakenes in western norway and the nordic seas multiple proxies from lake krakenes are indicative of rapid alternations between glacial growth and melting during the later younger dryas meanwhile reconstructed sea surface temperature and salinity from the nordic seas show an alternation between sea ice cover and the influx of warm salty north atlantic waters we suggest that the influx of warm water enabled the westerly wind systems to drift northward closer to their present day positions the winds thus brought relatively warm maritime air to northern europe resulting in rising temperatures and the melting of glaciers subsequent input of this fresh meltwater into the ocean spurred the formation of sea ice which forced the westerly winds back to the south cooling northern europe we conclude that rapid alternations between these two states immediately preceded the termination of the younger dryas and the permanent transition to an interglacial state the impact of freshwater pulses released from northern hemisphere ice sheets on the north atlantic meridional overturning circulation has been suggested as a likely mechanism for the younger dryas cooling 7 11 in addition a responsive sea ice cover has been proposed as a mechanism that could rapidly alter the heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere during the last glacial period 12 13 the roles of the ocean and the atmosphere in triggering the climate shifts around the younger dryas are much discussed 9 these hypotheses are difficult to resolve partly because the temporal resolution of most palaeoclimate archives is too coarse to enable the anatomy of the younger dryas stadial to be adequately described 14 to address these questions we here present a lake sediment record at sub annual resolution together with new data on the sea surface conditions of the norwegian atlantic current nwac throughouttheyoungerdryasstadial fig 1

late glacial stratigraphy and history of the gulf of st lawrence reply the three dimensional configuration of the quaternary sediments in the gulf of st lawrence is described based on analysis of 8000 km of high resolution seismic reflection data complemented by anal

the arctic sea ice biomarker ip25 a review of current understanding recommendations for future research and applications in palaeo sea ice reconstructions in recent years a novel proxy for the past occurrence of arctic sea ice has been proposed that is based on the variable marine sedimentary abundance of an organic geochemical lipid derived from sea ice diatoms in the spring this lipid termed ip25 ice proxy with 25 carbon atoms is a highly branched isoprenoid mono unsaturated alkene that appears to be sufficiently stable in sediments to permit meaningful palaeo sea ice reconstructions to be carried out over short to long term timescales since the first proposed use of ip25 as a proxy for palaeo sea ice by belt et al 2007 a number of laboratories have measured this biomarker in arctic sediments and it is anticipated that research activity in this area will increase further in the future the content of this review is divided into a number of sections firstly we describe the scientific basis for the ip25 proxy and its initial discovery in arctic sea ice sedimenting particles and sediments secondly we summarise the relatively few studies that have to date concentrated on examining the factors that influence the production and fate of ip25 and we identify some areas of future research that need to be addressed in order to improve our understanding of ip25 data obtained from sedimentary analyses what is clear at this stage however it that the presence of ip25 in arctic marine sediments appears to represent a proxy measure of past seasonal sea ice rather than permanent or multi year ice conditions thirdly we highlight the importance of rigorous analytical identification and quantification of ip25 especially if measurements of this biomarker are going to be used for quantitative sea ice reconstructions rather than qualitative analyses alone presence absence fourthly we review some recent attempts to make the interpretations of ip25 biomarker data more detailed and quantitative by combining sedimentary abundances with those of phytoplankton and other sea ice derived biomarkers thus the bases for the so called pip25 and dip25 indices are described together with an overview of potential limitations concluding that investigations into the use of these indices needs further research before their full potential can be realised in the final section we provide a summary of ip25 based palaeo sea ice reconstruction case studies performed to date these case studies cover different arctic regions and timescales spanning decades to tens of thousands of years

the distribution of living benthic foraminifera on the continental slope and rise off southwest norway abstract surface sediment samples taken by corer from 45 stations on the norwegian continental margin and in the norway basin have been investigated for their benthic foraminiferal content unlike previous studies the living benthic foraminiferal fauna was differentiated from empty tests comprising the foraminiferal death assemblage factor analysis of both the living and dead faunal data reveals six living species assemblages and five corresponding dead assemblages the additional living assemblage is characterized by the arenaceous speciescribrostomoides subglobosum that dominates between 1400 and 2000 m water depth but is rare in the dead faunal data trifarina angulosa and to a lesser extent cibicides lobatulus characterize the shallowest foraminiferal assemblage from 200 to 600 m water depth where it is associated with strong bottom currents and warm saline atlantic water of the north atlantic drift on the slope between 600 and 1200 m water depth themelonis zaandami species assemblage dominates particularly in areas characterized today by rapid sedimentation of terrigeneous material between 1000 and 1400 m depth where the slope is covered by fine grained organic rich terrigeneous mud the living foraminiferal assemblage is characterized bycassidulina teretis andpullenia bulloides below 1400 m three foraminiferal assemblages are found c subglobosum is found from 1400 to 2000 m cibicidoides wuellerstorfi andepistominella exigua predominantly live from 2000 to 3000 m water depth and below 3000 m oridorsalis umbonatus andtriloculina frigida dominate the fauna all of theelphidium excavatum tests found in this study and thecassidulina reniforme tests found above 500 m water depth were found to be reworked analysis of the sediment grain size distribution and the organic carbon content in surface samples from the deepest stations suggest that the abundance ofc wuellerstorfi ande exigua is positively correlated to relatively coarse caused by planktic foraminifera and organic rich sediments whereas high frequencies ofo umbonatus andt frigida coincide with low organic carbon content we suggest thatc wuellerstorfi is adapted to deep sea environments with relatively high food supply tolerating relatively low interstitial water oxygen content whereaso umbonatus may tolerate lower food supply prefering well oxygenated interstitial waters

precise 14c ages of the vedde and saksunarvatn ashes and the younger dryas boundaries from western norway and their comparison with the greenland ice core gicc05 chronology the greenland ice cores with the gicc05 chronology represent a standard for late quaternary climate events and their ages whereas many other palaeoclimatic archives are dependent on 14 c dates it is therefore critical to know if the ice core and the calibrated 14 c chronologies are identical and if not to quantify the offset between them we present bayesian age depth modelling of 118 accelerator mass spectrometry 14 c dates from kraukenes lake calibrated using intcal09 that provide high precision ages of 12 066 42 and 10 210 35 cal a bp for the vedde and saksunarvatn ashes respectively the lower and upper younger dryas boundaries have ages of 12 710 52 and 11 546 59 cal a bp respectively the four dated levels coincide with correlative levels in gicc05 within the dating uncertainties but are all consistently younger at kraukenes the ages of the tephra chronostratigraphic markers suggest a mean offset of 70 years to older ages in the gicc05 compared with the intcal09 time scale responses to small climate changes 30 years before the younger dryas boundaries at kraukenes are suggested to correspond to the defined greenland stadial 1 boundaries this suggested difference in timing 30 years and time scale offset 70 years mean that the greenland stadial 1 boundaries appear 100 years older than the younger dryas boundaries copyright 2013 john wiley sons ltd

a new greenland ice core chronology for the last glacial termination 1 we present a new common stratigraphic timescale for the north greenland ice core project ngrip and grip ice cores the timescale covers the period 7 9 14 8 kyr before present and includes the bolling allerod younger dryas and early holocene periods we use a combination of new and previously published data the most prominent being new high resolution continuous flow analysis cfa impurity records from the ngrip ice core several investigators have identified and counted annual layers using a multiparameter approach and the maximum counting error is estimated to be up to 2 in the holocene part and about 3 for the older parts these counting error estimates reflect the number of annual layers that were hard to interpret but not a possible bias in the set of rules used for annual layer identification as the grip and ngrip ice cores are not optimal for annual layer counting in the middle and late holocene the timescale is tied to a prominent volcanic event inside the 8 2 kyr cold event recently dated in the dye 3 ice core to 8236 years before a d 2000 b2k with a maximum counting error of 47 years the new timescale dates the younger dryas preboreal transition to 11 703 b2k which is 100 150 years older than according to the present grip and ngrip timescales the age of the transition matches the gisp2 timescale within a few years but viewed over the entire 7 9 14 8 kyr section there are significant differences between the new timescale and the gisp2 timescale the transition from the glacial into the bolling interstadial is dated to 14 692 b2k the presented timescale is a part of a new greenland ice core chronology common to the dye 3 grip and ngrip ice cores named the greenland ice core chronology 2005 gicc05 the annual layer thicknesses are observed to be log normally distributed with good approximation and compared to the early holocene the mean accumulation rates in the younger dryas and bolling periods are found to be 47 2 and 88 2 respectively

cooling in the gulf of st lawrence and estuary region at 9 7 to 7 2 14c ka 11 2 8 0 cal ka palynological response to the pbo and 8 2 cal ka cold events laurentide ice sheet air mass circulation and enhanced freshwater runoff abstract an examination of post younger dryas yd pollen stratigraphies in the gulf of st lawrence and st lawrence estuary region reveals features in the pollen records that represent breaks in the normal vegetation succession widespread vegetation suppression and a delay in migration of plant taxa between 9 7 and 7 2 14 c ka 11 2 and 8 0 cal ka the domination of alnus crispa at sites bordering the st lawrence estuary gulf region in gaspesie and northern new brunswick within this timeframe represents a diversion from the typical vegetation progression from picea and or populus or picea betula to pinus and or betula and signifies a shift to a cooler drier climate coinciding with the a crispa expansion and domination in that region was the contraction of picea populations in other areas in southwestern new brunswick and eastern and southeastern nova scotia picea was replaced by the first appearance of tree birch b papyrifera whereas in western and southwestern newfoundland picea gave way to a resurgence of shrub birch betula glandulosa the picea contraction and immediate resurgence of betula represents cooling and is reliably dated at 9720 110 14 c bp 10 800 11 240 cal bp in southwest newfoundland this first post yd episode of widespread cooling is correlated with the north atlantic preboreal oscillation pbo centered around 9650 14 c bp 10 900 11 180 cal bp in the adjacent great lakes region sites exposed to winds from the gulf of st lawrence in eastern new brunswick prince edward island and northern nova scotia show a lingering persistence of picea and delay in arrival of pinus to 8 0 and 7 7 14 c ka 9 0 and 8 4 cal ka yet pinus was dominant as early as 9 4 14 c ka 10 6 cal ka in southwestern new brunswick at the same time tundra vegetation persisted at high elevations in western and southwestern newfoundland only to be replaced by upslope migration of shrub birch heath by 8 14 c ka prolonged broad scale cooling to 8 14 c ka and to as late as 7 7 14 c ka extended up to 200 km inland in areas exposed to the st lawrence estuary and gulf region and was in response to strong cold dry anticyclonic winds coming off the retreating laurentide ice sheet in combination with enhanced freshwater runoff through the gulf of st lawrence the end of the period of prolonged cooling and onset of regional warming coincided with the diversion of western canada runoff and agassiz ojibway drainage to hudson bay and reduced effect or final break up of the laurentide ice sheet several sites document a subsequent cold shift that interrupted regional warming at 7650 to 7200 14 c bp 8400 to 8000 cal bp and which is variously represented by the suppression of pinus and resurgence of picea sometimes with a crispa quebec maritime region or by an abrupt decrease of picea and resurgence of betula western newfoundland this second post yd cool interval is equated with the 8200 cal bp cold event registered in the greenland ice isotopic record

megaflutes in a continental shelf setting placentia bay newfoundland abstract megaflutes erosional scours normally found in deep water on continental slopes were identified in 1978 on sidescan sonograms and seismic reflection profiles from placentia bay on the south coast of newfoundland canada data from recent extensive multibeam sonar surveys provide an opportunity to describe the morphology and distribution of the megaflutes in detail and to consider the formative processes they occur on the east side of the outer bay at a depth of 200 m in a 2 3 km wide swath that continues to the south into halibut channel over a total distance of 100 km the megaflutes have been formed by removal of a layer of postglacial mud exposing underlying glaciomarine sediments and releasing a volume of 4 5 km3 they occur in a range of forms including single multiple and coalescent types and in some areas at least their inception was related to pre existing pockmarks radiocarbon dates from piston cores are used to demonstrate that megaflute formation post dated ca 9 ka megaflute formation in placentia bay has been attributed to a reverse flow from the tsunami generated by the 1929 grand banks earthquake and this is still the accepted hypothesis we argue that the return flow from a tsunami did not generate the megaflutes and suggest instead that they could be formed during south flowing density currents generated when volumes of cold saline water stored in the deep 250 m basins at the head of placentia bay are intermittently displaced and spilled south in a shallow channel at the east side of the bay after intense coastal surface dense water formation events perhaps during very cold winters

divergent evolution in fluviokarst landscapes of central kentucky central kentucky is characterized by a mixture of karst and uvial features typically manifested as mosaic of karst rich channel poor krcp and channel rich karst poor crkp environments at the regional scale the location and distribution of krcp and crkp areas are not always systematically related to structural lithological topographic or other controls this study examines the relationship of krcp and crkp zones along the kentucky river gorge area where rapid incision in the last 1 5 million years has lowered local base levels and modi ed slopes on the edge of the inner bluegrass plateau at the scale of detailed eld mapping on foot within a 4 km2 area the development of karst and uvial features is controlled by highly localized structural and topographic constraints and can be related to slope changes associated with retreat of the kentucky river gorge escarpment a conceptual model of karst uvial transitions is presented which suggests that minor localized variations are suf cient to trigger a karst uvial or uvial karst switch when critical slope thresholds are crossed copyright 2004 john wiley sons ltd

transfer function between surface sediment diatom assemblages and sea surface temperature and salinity of the labrador sea abstract q mode factor analysis cabfac of 38 diatom species in 66 surface sediment samples from the labrador sea allowed the definition of six assemblages explaining 95 69 of the total variance the first assemblage 40 12 of the total variance is represented by thalassiothrix longissima a species characteristic of the irminger current and associated with the west greenland current the second assemblage 34 52 of the total variance is represented by thalassiosira gravida resting spores a cold water species associated with the labrador current a third assemblage 11 43 of the variance represented by chaetoceros spp is concentrated in the northeastern section of the labrador sea and associated with upwelling and high productivity the fourth the fifth and the sixth assemblages represented respectively by coscinodiscus marginatus coscinodiscus oculus iridis and coscinodiscus divisus and nitzschia frigida are less significant and account respectively for 4 95 2 62 and 2 04 of the total variance transfer functions derived by relating factor assemblages to surface water temperature and salinity august and february give standard errors of estimate of 0 93 c august and 0 64 c february for temperature and of 0 58 august and 0 45 february for salinity high correlations between the measured and estimated parameters confirm the validity of the paleoecological equations for the reconstruction of the labrador sea paleoclimate

advection of atlantic water to the western and northern svalbard shelf since 17 500 cal yr bp abstract the changes in flow and character of the warm atlantic water through the last 17 500 cal yr are reconstructed from the distribution of benthic foraminifera species planktonic and benthic foraminifera abundances stable oxygen isotopes and lithology in two cores from the western and northern shelf of svalbard the results show almost continuous presence of atlantic water at the shelf areas since 14 500 cal yr bp the bolling and allerod intervals stand out as periods of highest bottom waters temperatures the strong inflow of saline but chilled atlantic water during the early holocene was followed by cooling and freshening of the bottom waters during the mid and late holocene the two records reveal synchronous oceanographic changes that are closely tied to changes in the flow of atlantic water recorded further south in the nordic seas the early holocene warming was not just an effect of higher solar insolation but was also due to increased heat flux from the stronger atlantic water inflow driven by wind force and or thermohaline circulation

diatom evidence of hydrographic changes and ice conditions in igaliku fjord south greenland during the past 1500 years biostratigraphic diatom analyses were carried out on two sediment cores from igaliku fjord south greenland in order to reconstruct hydrographic and climatic fluctuations during the late holocene ad 550 to present pronounced differences in hydrographic setting of the coring sites provide palaeoenvironmental information of both local and more regional character five diatom zones were identified from the subfossil diatom records each describing a hydrographic setting two major climate periods the mediaeval warm period ad 800 1250 and the little ice age ad 1580 1850 that were separated by a variable transitional period were recognized prior to these periods a cold and presumably moist climate regime prevailed between ad 500 and 700 cooling events were identified during the mediaeval warm period in the period ad 960 to 1140 the diatom data demonstrate that marked hydrographic changes occurred in the course of a relatively short timespan beginning at about ad 1300 and culminating around

a diatom based reconstruction of early holocene hydrographic and climatic change in a southwest greenland fjord abstract a diatom based reconstruction of surface water paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic changes in ameralik fjord southwest greenland is presented for the holocene interval 8800 to 3600 cal yrs b p a minor episode of cold surface water conditions is found at ca 8000 7800 cal yrs b p this may be due to the local conditions in the fjord and linked to the culmination of a strong melt water outflow rather than reflecting the widespread north atlantic 8 2 ka cooling event warming of surface water condition from 7800 to 7100 cal yrs b p probably corresponding to the early and warmest part of the holocene thermal maximum htm in this region is reflected in the diatom assemblages and supported by other proxies the west greenland current wgc influences the fjord strongly during this interval indicating enhanced advection of atlantic water masses derived from the irminger current ic a major sedimentary change with a hiatus between 6800 and 4400 cal yrs b p prevents a reconstruction of mid holocene paleoceanograpy the final and less prominent part of the htm is found after 4400 cal yrs b p previous studies from the same site have shown this final stage of the htm to end at 3200 cal yrs b p with the onset of the neoglaciation our study provides further evidence that the marine sedimentary record from west greenland fjords yields paleoenvironmental information reflecting a significant link between local and large scale north atlantic oceanographic and climatic changes

a multi proxy reconstruction of oceanographic conditions around the younger dryas holocene transition in placentia bay newfoundland abstract a marine sediment core from placentia bay off the south coast of newfoundland was studied to reconstruct past oceanographic conditions based on a multiproxy approach including diatoms benthic foraminifera grain size analysis ip25 x ray fluorescence calcium carbonate and total organic carbon content based on 6 radiocarbon dates the 513 5 cm long core spans the age interval from ca 13 to 10 cal kyrs bp and thus captures the transition from the younger dryas stadial into the holocene at sub decadal resolution the younger dryas was characterized by cold arctic water taxa of diatoms and benthic foraminifera and a stratified water column with high sea ice cover and low productivity due to strong influence of the labrador current during the second half of the younger dryas after ca 12 2 cal kyrs bp the influence of the labrador current gradually decreased and sea ice conditions became more variable the transition towards the holocene is characterized by a sequence of events starting with turnovers in the biogenic proxies followed by an abrupt retreat of sea ice and a rise in productivity these events are believed to be related to a northward migration of the gulf stream labrador current oceanic front the younger dryas termination is directly followed by a detrital carbonate layer associated with the final phase of the heinrich 0 event linked to laurentide ice sheet dynamics during the early holocene productivity remained high with minimal sea ice cover reduced stratification and stronger influence of warmer gulf stream derived waters

deposition models for chronological records abstract long term sedimentary sequences provide a wealth of useful information for research into the palaeo environment especially in relation to past climate change shorter records provide similar information in many archaeological contexts however if such records are to be used to provide precise timing of events and more critically the relative timing between different records methods are needed to provide accurate and precise age depth models for these sequences given the imprecision of individual calibrated radiocarbon determinations it is necessary to use the information we have about the deposition process to refine our chronologies and also to provide interpolation between dated levels in any sequence even with layer counted chronologies the uncertainties are sometimes hard to quantify this paper outlines a range of bayesian models for deposition which have been implemented in the computer programme oxcal these models can be used to combine information from the sediments themselves with radiocarbon or other direct dating information such models have the potential to integrate information between different records and provide a coherent chronology on which to base environmental or archaeological research