Atlantic Water advection and glacier responses at the margins of Svalbard since the deglaciation

Abstract

Atlantic Water (AW) advection plays an important role in climatic, oceanographic and environmental conditions in the Arctic. Situated along the only deep connection between the Atlantic and the Arctic oceans, the Svalbard Archipelago is an ideal location to reconstruct the past AW advection history and document its linkage with local glacier dynamics. In the framework of this thesis, three sediment cores from the northern margins of Svalbard were chosen covering up to 15,500 years. Multi-proxy based reconstructions (applying benthic foraminiferal assemblages, sediment properties and geochemical tracers) revealed a rapid retreat of the ice sheet covering Svalbard during the deglaciation, closely connected to AW inflow. While conditions during the early Holocene were warmer than today when AW caused open waters and retreated glaciers, Arctic Water gained influence at the transition to the mid-Holocene, whereas glaciers re-advanced during the late Holocene.