Deglaciation of Fennoscandia

To provide a new reconstruction of the deglaciation of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, in the form of calendar-year time-slices, which are particularly useful for ice sheet modelling, we have compiled and synthesized published geomorphological data for eskers, ice-marginal formations, lineations, marginal meltwater channels, striae, ice-dammed lakes, and geochronological data from radiocarbon, varve, optically-stimulated luminescence, and cosmogenic nuclide dating. This 25 is summarized as a deglaciation map of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet with isochrons marking every 1000 years between 22 and 13 cal kyr BP and every hundred years between 11.6 and final ice decay after 9.7 cal kyr BP. Deglaciation patterns vary across the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet domain, reflecting differences in climatic and geomorphic settings as well as ice sheet basal thermal conditions and terrestrial versus marine margins. For example, the ice sheet margin in the high-precipitation coastal setting of the western sector responded sensitively to climatic variations leaving a detailed record of prominent moraines and ice-marginal deposits in many fjords and coastal valleys. Retreat rates across the southern sector differed between slow retreat of the terrestrial margin in western and southern Sweden and rapid retreat of the calving ice margin in the Baltic Basin. Our reconstruction is consistent with much of the published research. However, the synthesis of a large amount of existing and new data support refined reconstructions in some areas. For example, we locate the LGM extent of the ice sheet in northwestern Russia further east than previously suggested and conclude that it occurred at a later time than the rest of the ice sheet, at around 17-15 cal kyr BP, and propose a slightly different chronology of moraine formation over southern Sweden based on improved correlations of moraine segments using new LiDAR data and tying the timing of moraine formation to Greenland ice core cold stages. Retreat rates vary by as much as an order of magnitude in different sectors of the ice sheet, with the lowest rates on the high-elevation and maritime Norwegian margin. Retreat rates compared to the climatic information provided by the Greenland ice core record show a general correspondence between retreat rate and climatic forcing, although a close match between retreat rate and climate is unlikely because of other controls, such as topography and marine versus terrestrial margins. Overall, the time slice reconstructions of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet deglaciation from 22 to 9.7 cal kyr BP provide an important dataset for understanding the contexts that underpin spatial and temporal patterns in retreat of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, and are an important resource for testing and refining ice sheet models

On the Reconstruction of Palaeo-Ice Sheets: Recent Advances and Future Challenges

Reconstructing the growth and decay of palaeo-ice sheets is critical to understanding mechanisms of global climate change and associated sea-level fluctuations in the past, present and future. The significance of palaeo-ice sheets is further underlined by the broad range of disciplines concerned with reconstructing their behaviour, many of which have undergone a rapid expansion since the 1980s. In particular, there has been a major increase in the size and qualitative diversity of empirical data used to reconstruct and date ice sheets, and major improvements in our ability to simulate their dynamics in numerical ice sheet models. These developments have made it increasingly necessary to forge interdisciplinary links between sub-disciplines and to link numerical modelling with observations and dating of proxy records. The aim of this paper is to evaluate recent developments in the methods used to reconstruct ice sheets and outline some key challenges that remain, with an emphasis on how future work might integrate terrestrial and marine evidence together with numerical modelling. Our focus is on pan-ice sheet reconstructions of the last deglaciation, but regional case studies are used to illustrate methodological achievements, challenges and opportunities. Whilst various disciplines have made important progress in our understanding of ice-sheet dynamics, it is clear that data-model integration remains under-used, and that uncertainties remain poorly quantified in both empirically-based and numerical ice-sheet reconstructions. The representation of past climate will continue to be the largest source of uncertainty for numerical modelling. As such, palaeo-observations are critical to constrain and validate modelling. State-of-the-art numerical models will continue to improve both in model resolution and in the breadth of inclusion of relevant processes, thereby enabling more accurate and more direct comparison with the increasing range of palaeo-observations. Thus, the capability is developing to use all relevant palaeo-records to more strongly constrain deglacial (and to a lesser extent pre-LGM) ice sheet evolution. In working towards that goal, the accurate representation of uncertainties is required for both constraint data and model outputs. Close cooperation between modelling and data-gathering communities is essential to ensure this capability is realised and continues to progress

Patterns in recent and Holocene pollen accumulation rates across Europe - the Pollen Monitoring Programme Database as a tool for vegetation reconstruction

The collection of modern, spatially extensive pollen data is important for the interpretation of fossil pollen assemblages and the reconstruction of past vegetation communities in space and time. Modern datasets are readily available for percentage data but lacking for pollen accumulation rates (PARs). Filling this gap has been the motivation of the pollen monitoring network, whose contributors monitored pollen deposition in modified Tauber traps for several years or decades across Europe. Here we present this monitoring dataset consisting of 351 trap locations with a total of 2742 annual samples covering the period from 1981 to 2017. This dataset shows that total PAR is influenced by forest cover and climate parameters, which determine pollen productivity and correlate with latitude. Treeless vegetation produced PAR values of at least 140 grains cm(-2) yr(-1). Tree PAR increased by at least 400 grains cm(-2) yr(-1) with each 10% increase in forest cover. Pollen traps situated beyond 200 km of the distribution of a given tree species still collect occasional pollen grains of that species. The threshold of this long-distance transport differs for individual species and is generally below 60 grains cm(-2) yr(-1). Comparisons between modern and fossil PAR from the same regions show similar values. For temperate taxa, modern analogues for fossil PARs are generally found downslope or southward of the fossil sites. While we do not find modern situations comparable to fossil PAR values of some taxa (e.g. Corylus), CO2 fertilization and land use may cause high modern PARs that are not documented in the fossil record. The modern data are now publicly available in the Neotoma Paleoecology Database and aid interpretations of fossil PAR data.Peer reviewe

Changes in vertical ice extent along the East Antarctic Ice Sheet margin in western Dronning Maud Land – initial field and modelling results of the MAGIC-DML collaboration

Constraining numerical ice sheet models by comparison with observational data is crucial to address the interactions between cryosphere and climate at a wide range of scales. Such models are tested and refined by comparing model predictions of past ice geometries with field-based reconstructions from geological, geomorphological, and ice core data. However, for the East Antarctic Ice sheet, there is a critical gap in the empirical data necessary to reconstruct changes in ice sheet geometry in the Dronning Maud Land (DML) region. In addition, there is poor control on the regional climate history of the ice sheet margin, because ice-core locations, where detailed reconstructions of climate history exist, are located on high inland domes. This leaves numerical models ofregional glaciation history in this near-coastal area largely unconstrained. MAGIC-DML is an ongoing Swedish-US-Norwegian-German-UK collaboration with a focus on improvingice sheet models of the western DML margin by combining advances in modeling with filling critical data gaps regarding the timing and pattern of ice-surface changes. A combination of geomorphological mapping using remote sensing data, field observations, cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating, and numerical ice sheetmodeling are being used in an iterative manner to produce a comprehensive reconstruction of the glacial historyof western DML. Here, we present an overview of the project, field evidence for formerly higher ice surfaces and in-situ cosmogenic nuclide measurements from the 2016/17 expedition. Preliminary field evidence indicate that interior sectors of DML have experienced a general decrease in ice sheet thickness since the late Miocene, with potential episodes of increasing thickness in the late Pleistocene (700-300 ka, 250-75 ka). To aid in interpreting these field data, new high-resolution ice sheet model reconstructions, constraining ice sheet configurations during key episodes, are presented

Mid-Pleistocene ice sheet fluctuations from cosmogenic nuclide field constraints in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is generally assumed to have been relatively insensitive to Quaternary climat echange. However, recent studies have shown potential instabilities in coastal, marine sectors of the EAIS. In addition, long-term climate reconstructions and modelling experiments indicate the potential for significant changes in ice volume and ice sheet configuration since the Pliocene. Hence, more empirical evidence for ice surface and ice volume changes is required to discriminate between contrasting inferences. MAGIC-DML is an ongoing Swedish-US-Norwegian-German-UK collaboration focused on improving ice sheetm odels by filling critical data gaps that exist in our knowledge of the timing and pattern of ice surface changes along the western Dronning Maud Land (DML) margin and combining this with advances in numerical techniques. As part of the project, field studies in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 austral summers targeted selected sites spanning accessible altitudes in the Heimefrontfjella, Vestfjella, Ahlmannryggen, Borgmassivet, and Kirwanveggen nunatakranges for in situcosmogenic nuclide sampling. Comparing concentrations of nuclides with widely differing half-lives in bedrock and erratics from a range of altitudes above modern ice surfaces can provide information on ice sheet fluctuations and complex burial and exposure histories, and thus, past configurations of non-erosive ice. Quartz-bearing rock types were sampled and analyzed for 10Be (t1/21.4 My),14C (t1/25.7 ky),26Al (t1/2705ky), and 21Ne (stable), and mafic lithologies for36Cl (t1/2301 ky). Results thus far for 3210Be and 26Al isotope pairs complemented with seven21Ne measurements have yielded some consistent patterns of paleoglaciation for the western DML margin. Eight out of fourteen bedrock samples from high-elevation (1700-2238 m a.s.l.) ridges and summits return some of the oldest exposure ages in Antarctica and have consistent 10Be,26Al, and 21Ne minimum apparent exposure ages of 1.8-4.1 Ma. Initial results therefore indicate that parts of the ice sheet marginal to the Antarctic plateau, along the Heimefrontfjella range, generally have experienced a decrease in ice thickness since the late Miocene. Another six bedrock samples (1556-1732 ma.s.l.) fall in the 300-700 ka range, and they all show significant burial. At face value, perhaps this indicates aregional ice sheet surface above 1700 m a.s.l. for much of the Plio-early Pleistocene. All other samples analyzedto date are erratics from lower elevation and more coastal sites (10 from nunataks at 553-1400 m a.s.l., and 6 froma surface moraine at 1385 m a.s.l.), exhibiting ages between 59 and 275 ka, save for two (4 and 6 ka). Whereas almost all of the nunatak erratics (including the young ones) show significant burial durations, five of the six surface moraine samples do not. These 2016/17 field samples are not yet leading to conclusive age constraints but already start to paint a picture of the western DML margin being relatively stable although there was possibly one or more episodes of relatively limited ice thickening during the last 700 ka

Schmidt-hammer exposure ages from periglacial patterned ground (sorted circles) in Jotunheimen, Norway, and their interpretative problems

© 2016 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography Periglacial patterned ground (sorted circles and polygons) along an altitudinal profile at Juvflya in central Jotunheimen, southern Norway, is investigated using Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD). The patterned ground surfaces exhibit R-value distributions with platycurtic modes, broad plateaus, narrow tails, and a negative skew. Sample sites located between 1500 and 1925 m a.s.l. indicate a distinct altitudinal gradient of increasing mean R-values towards higher altitudes interpreted as a chronological function. An established regional SHD calibration curve for Jotunheimen yielded mean boulder exposure ages in the range 6910 ± 510 to 8240 ± 495 years ago. These SHD ages are indicative of the timing of patterned ground formation, representing minimum ages for active boulder upfreezing and maximum ages for the stabilization of boulders in the encircling gutters. Despite uncertainties associated with the calibration curve and the age distribution of the boulders, the early-Holocene age of the patterned ground surfaces, the apparent cessation of major activity during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) and continuing lack of late-Holocene activity clarify existing understanding of the process dynamics and palaeoclimatic significance of large-scale sorted patterned ground as an indicator of a permafrost environment. The interpretation of SHD ages from patterned ground surfaces remains challenging, however, owing to their diachronous nature, the potential for a complex history of formation, and the influence of local, non-climatic factors