Holocene multi-proxy environmental reconstruction from lake Hakluytvatnet, Amsterdamoya Island, Svalbard (79.5 degrees N)

• High resolution proxy records of past climate are sparse in the Arctic due to low organic production that restricts the use of radiocarbon dating and challenging logistics that make data collection difficult. Here, we present a new lake record from lake Hakluytvatnet at Amsterdamoya island (79.5 degrees N), the north-westernmost island on Svalbard. Multi-proxy analyses of lake sediments in combination with geomorphological mapping reveal large environmental shifts that have taken place at Amsterdamoya during the Holocene. A robust chronology has been established for the lake sediment core through 28 AMS radiocarbon ages, and this gives an exceptionally well-constrained age control for a lake at this latitude. The Holocene was a period with large changes in the Hakluytvatnet catchment, and the onset of the Neoglacial (ca. 5 ka) marks the start of modern-day conditions in the catchment. The Neoglacial is characterized by fluctuations in the minerogenic input to the lake as well as internal productivity, and we suggest that these fluctuations are driven by atmospherically forced precipitation changes as well as sea ice extent modulating the amount of moisture that can reach Hakluytvatnet. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Naturgeografi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Physical Geography (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Geologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Geology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Klimatforskning (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Climate Research (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Holocene

Neoglacial

Paleolimnology

Lake sediments

Runoff

Svalbard

Arctic ocean

sea-ice sheet

rock glaciers

spitsbergen

sediments

climate

bacillariophyta

fluctuations

deglaciation

carbonate

ignition

Physical Geography

Geology

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)