Abstract The Arctic warms faster than anywhere else on Earth, and paleoclimate data are key to placing this amplified response in a long‐term context. But most past temperature proxies record growing season conditions, when their biological signal carriers are produced. This bias is important, as model simulations suggest that future Arctic warming will be strongest in winter. We help close this gap by presenting a 6.7 ka long record of Arctic cold season climate change. For this purpose, we characterize siderite mineral concretions in Svalbard Lake sediments that form under anoxic conditions, prompted by lingering lake ice coverage after severe winters. To do so with high micrometer‐scale precision, we integrate multiple core scanning characteristics. This novel approach finds non‐linear transitions in response to a complex interplay between abrupt (volcanic) and gradual (cyclic) paleoclimate forcings.

Global estimates of methane (CH 4 ) emissions from lakes to the atmosphere rely on understanding CH 4 processes at the sediment‐water interface (SWI). However, in the Arctic, the variability, magnitude, and environmental drivers of CH 4 production and flux across the SWI are poorly understood. Here, we estimate CH 4 diffusive fluxes from the sediment into the water column in 10 lakes in Arctic Scandinavia and Svalbard using porewater modeling and mass transfer estimates, which we then compare with 60 published estimates from the Arctic to the tropics. Diffusion of CH 4 in the sampled lake sediments ranged from −0.46 to 3.1 mmol m −2 day −1 , which is consistent with previous reports for Arctic and boreal lakes, and lower than for temperate and tropical biomes. Methane production occurs primarily within the top ∼10 cm of sediment, indicating a biogenic origin. Random forest predictive modeling of the sampled lakes revealed that conditions promoting production and deposition of autochthonous organic carbon in Arctic lakes drive CH 4 diffusion into the water column by fueling sediment CH 4 production. For small lakes across biomes, determinants of the estimated CH 4 flux were also best captured by climate predictors, with warmer and wetter conditions favoring ecosystem productivity and enhancing flux but also lake morphometry resulting in important regional variability in estimates. Our study emphasizes the importance of quantifying diffusive CH 4 fluxes from sediments in diverse lake types to account for differences in the controls on primary production and the preservation of organic carbon across and within different biomes, to refine CH 4 emission estimates in a warming climate.

The Sjuøyane archipelago is the northernmost land area of Svalbard; thus, it provides a window to study the terrestrial glacial history and dynamics of the Svalbard–Barents Sea Ice Sheet and complement marine geological studies in the region. To reconstruct the glacial history of Sjuøyane, we describe coastal sedimentary sections in Quaternary sediments and constrain their chronology by radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence ages. Erratic boulders and bedrock are sampled for 10Be cosmogenic exposure dating, aiming to determine the deglaciation age and exposure history. Holocene environments are studied based on lake sediments and emerging vegetation from retreating snow patches. The sedimentary sections largely consist of shallow (glacio‐)marine and/or littoral sediments deposited during high relative sea levels. The radiocarbon and luminescence ages suggest they formed during a Middle Weichselian interstadial and after the Late Weichselian glaciation. A wave‐washed bedrock erosional notch and rounded boulders at 36±1 m a.h.t. most likely formed during this interstadial. Most of the cosmogenic 10Be ages are older than the last deglaciation, likely indicating a complex exposure history. One boulder sample suggests that the lowlands were deglaciated 14.7±1.82 ka ago, and two boulder samples with ages of 18.94±3.26 and 22.89±4.05 ka suggest that the highlands were possibly ice‐free at this time. The lake sediments from Isvatnet, Phippsøya, consist of glaciolacustrine silt and clay overlain by gyttja. The gyttja has accumulated at least since 7.0 cal. ka BP. Two radiocarbon ages from emerging vegetation suggest Neoglacial cooling since 3.8 cal. ka BP. A patchy glacial drift at the surface of Sjuøyane and well‐preserved pre‐Late Weichselian sediments suggest that the Late Weichselian glaciation was non‐erosive and/or cold‐based at this part of the north margin of the Svalbard–Barents Sea Ice Sheet.

Abstract Accelerated Arctic warming and wetting has global impacts, as the region’s glaciers and ice caps respond to variations in temperature and precipitation, impacting global sea-level change. But as the observations needed to calibrate models are scarce, predictions cannot confirm if increases in snowfall can help offset melt. Here, we analyze two 14,000-year-long glacier-fed lake sediment records from the Svalbard archipelago to examine the response of a resilient ice cap (Åsgardfonna) to warmer-than-present Holocene Thermal Maximum conditions. End-Member Modelling allowed us to unmix the diluted grain size signal of rock flour – a widely used proxy for past glacier change, and surface runoff – an indicator of hydrological intensification. Our findings reveal that Åsgardfonna survived and may have advanced despite warmer conditions, possibly due to enhanced snowfall driven by sea-ice loss. This suggests that future increases in precipitation could moderate glacier retreat in similar settings.

During the last few decades, several sectors in Antarctica have transitioned from glacial mass balance equilibrium to mass loss. In order to determine if recent trends exceed the scale of natural variability, long-term observations are vital. Here we explore the earliest, large-scale, aerial image archive of Antarctica to provide a unique record of 21 outlet glaciers along the coastline of East Antarctica since the 1930s. In Lützow-Holm Bay, our results reveal constant ice surface elevations since the 1930s, and indications of a weakening of local land-fast sea-ice conditions. Along the coastline of Kemp and Mac Robertson, and Ingrid Christensen Coast, we observe a long-term moderate thickening of the glaciers since 1937 and 1960 with periodic thinning and decadal variability. In all regions, the long-term changes in ice thickness correspond with the trends in snowfall since 1940. Our results demonstrate that the stability and growth in ice elevations observed in terrestrial basins over the past few decades are part of a trend spanning at least a century, and highlight the importance of understanding long-term changes when interpreting current dynamics.

Accelerated Arctic warming and wetting has global impacts, as the region`s glaciers and ice caps respond to changes in temperature (melt) and precipitation (growth), driving on-going sea-level change. However, as the observations needed to calibrate models are scarce and uncertain, predictions cannot confirm if future increases in snowfall can counterbalance ice loss. To help answer this key question, we present evidence of Arctic glacier survival throughout the warmer-than-present Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM). For this purpose, we analyzed 14 ka long sediment records from two glacial lakes – continuous recorders of past glacier change, fed by Åsgardfonna – an ice cap that survived HTM heat based on mass balance simulations, on Svalbard – a climate change hotspot characterized by the region`s highest rates of warming, sea ice loss, and precipitation change. End Member Modelling Analysis (EMMA) allows us to unmix the diluted diagnostic grain size signal of rock flour – a widely used proxy for past glacier change, and surface runoff – an indicator of hydrological intensification. These reconstructions reveal that Åsgardfonna even advanced under HTM conditions because seasonal sea-ice loss enhanced snowfall. Our findings thus suggest that the near-future retreat and sea-level contribution of Arctic glaciers and ice caps might be slower than assumed.

Svalbard spans large climate gradients, associated with atmospheric circulation patterns and variations in ocean heat content and sea ice cover. Future precipitation increases are projected to peak in the northeast and to mainly occur in winter, but uncertainties underscore the need for reconstructions of long‐term spatial and temporal variations in precipitation amounts and seasonality. We use lipid biomarkers from four sedimentary lake records along a climatic gradient from western to northeastern Svalbard to reconstruct Holocene water cycle changes. We measured the leaf wax hydrogen isotopic composition of long‐chain (terrestrial) and mid‐chain (aquatic) n‐alkanoic acids, reflecting δ2H of precipitation (δ2Hprecip) and lake water (δ2Hlake), respectively. δ2Hprecip values mainly reflect summer precipitation δ2H and evapotranspiration, whereas δ2Hlake values can reflect various precipitation seasonality due to varying lake hydrology. For one lake, we used the difference between δ2Hprecip and δ2Hlake (εprecip‐lake) to infer summer evapotranspiration changes. Relatively 2H‐enriched δ2Hprecip values and higher εprecip‐lake in the Early and Middle Holocene suggest warm summers with higher evapotranspiration, and/or more proximal summer moisture. After c. 6 cal. ka BP, 2H‐depleted δ2Hprecip values and lower εprecip‐lake indicate summer cooling, less evapotranspiration, or more distally derived moisture. Early to Middle Holocene decrease in δ2Hlake values in two northern Spitsbergen lakes reflects an increase in the proportion of winter relative to summer precipitation, associated with regional warming and increased moisture supply, which may be due to increased distal moisture supply and/or reduced sea ice cover. Our northern Svalbard δ2Hlake records suggest great Late Holocene climate variability with periodic winter precipitation increases or decreases in summer precipitation inflow to the lakes. We find that Holocene summer precipitation δ2H values mainly follow changes in summer insolation and temperature, whereas the seasonal distribution of precipitation is sensitive to catchment hydrology, regional ocean surface conditions, and moisture source changes.

The deglaciation of the Svalbard-Barents Sea Ice Sheet was driven by relative sea-level rise, the incursion of North Atlantic waters around Spitsbergen, and increasing summer insolation. However, ice retreat was interrupted by asynchronous re-advances that occurred into high relative seas, during a period associated with warm regional waters and elevated summer temperatures. Better understanding of this complex style of deglaciation and the dynamic response to a warming climate can serve as an important analogue for modern warming and today's ice sheets. We present evidence from northern Svalbard of glacier re-advances during the Late Glacial-Early Holocene in hand with relative sea-level history and the occurrence of thermophilous molluscs. We argue that glacio-isostatic adjustment during the transition into the Holocene influenced ice marginal dynamics and as a result, the southern region of the Åsgardfonna ice cap persisted through the Holocene Thermal Maximum.

Abstract Large-scale observational time series of pre-satellite era glacier changes in Antarctica are rare. In order to determine if recent trends are independent of natural variability, long-term observations are vital. Here we rediscover and explore the earliest, large-scale, aerial image archive of Antarctica to provide a unique record of 21 outlet glaciers along the coastline of East Antarctica since the 1930s. We combine the imagery with more recent Australian aerial photographs (1956-1973) to provide historical glacier reconstructions through multiple epochs. The historical reconstructions are compared to modern satellite observations to study glacier elevation changes over 85 years, allowing us to distinguish long-term trends from shorter-term variability. The aerial images reveal two distinct regional patterns: In Lützow-Holm Bay, Dronning Maud Land, the ice elevations remained stable, however with a concurrent frontal retreat of all glaciers in the 1980s and indications of a weakening of the localized land-fast sea-ice conditions. Along the coastline of Kemp, Mac Robertson, and Ingrid Christensen Coast, we observe a general thickening of the glaciers. We find that the regional differences in observed ice thickness are consistent with the overall trends in snowfall since 1940. Additionally, our results demonstrate that the stability and growth observed in terrestrial basins over the past few decades are part of a longer-term trend spanning at least a century.

High-latitude lakes are sensitive to climate change and store information about large-scale circulation changes and catchment-integrated processes. Lakes are mainly recharged by meteoric water, meaning that some lake sediment proxies may indirectly archive the stable isotopic composition of hydrogen (delta H-2) and oxygen (delta O-18) of past precipitation. Yet, despite similar precipitation input, lakes within a region may exhibit a wide range of isotopic values due to the varying influence of inflow seasonality and evaporation. Moreover, the relative sensitivity of each lake to these controls may vary through time, something that is difficult to account for. Here, we evaluate the impact of variable inflow delta H-2 and evaporation on the lake water isotopic composition across northern Fennoscandia (Norway, Finland, and Sweden). We measured lake water delta H-2 and delta O-18 of 135 lakes spanning from the north Norwegian coast along a 460 km transect to the Bothnian Bay, sampled from 2018 to 2020. Our data show that both coastal and inland lakes are sensitive to distillation during moisture transport, and that lakes farther from the Atlantic Ocean are additionally impacted by evaporation. We estimated the isotopic composition of lake water inflow values for evapo-concentrated transect lakes (delta H-2(I)) using a Bayesian method. Resampled transect lakes had more depleted delta H-2(I) in 2020 than in 2019, indicating either that precipitation was H-2-depleted or that more winter precipitation contributed inflow to the lakes in 2020 compared to in 2019. We suggest that the more & nbsp;H-2-depleted values in 2020 were a response to a snow-rich winter, associated with extremely positive Arctic Oscillation (AO+) conditions and increased moisture supply from the North Atlantic. We find evidence that lake water isotopic variability in this region reflects a combination of seasonal precipitation changes associated with atmospheric circulation changes, and catchment-integrated evaporation. Careful consideration of the variable sensitivity to these processes is essential when making inferences about past climate based on lake water isotope proxies.

In the Northern Hemisphere, an insolation driven Early to Middle Holocene Thermal Maximum was followed by a Neoglacial cooling that culminated during the Little Ice Age (LIA). Here, we review the glacier response to this Neoglacial cooling in Greenland. Changes in the ice margins of outlet glaciers from the Greenland Ice Sheet as well as local glaciers and ice caps are synthesized Greenland-wide. In addition, we compare temperature reconstructions from ice cores, elevation changes of the ice sheet across Greenland and oceanographic reconstructions from marine sediment cores over the past 5,000 years. The data are derived from a comprehensive review of the literature supplemented with unpublished reports. Our review provides a synthesis of the sensitivity of the Greenland ice margins and their variability, which is critical to understanding how Neoglacial glacier activity was interrupted by the current anthropogenic warming. We have reconstructed three distinct periods of glacier expansion from our compilation: two older Neoglacial advances at 2,500 – 1,700 yrs. BP (Before Present = 1950 CE, Common Era) and 1,250 – 950 yrs. BP; followed by a general advance during the younger Neoglacial between 700-50 yrs. BP, which represents the LIA. There is still insufficient data to outline the detailed spatio-temporal relationships between these periods of glacier expansion. Many glaciers advanced early in the Neoglacial and persisted in close proximity to their present-day position until the end of the LIA. Thus, the LIA response to Northern Hemisphere cooling must be seen within the wider context of the entire Neoglacial period of the past 5,000 years. Ice expansion appears to be closely linked to changes in ice sheet elevation, accumulation, and temperature as well as surface-water cooling in the surrounding oceans. At least for the two youngest Neoglacial advances, volcanic forcing triggering a sea-ice /ocean feedback, could explain their initiation. There are probably several LIA glacier fluctuations since the first culmination close to 1250 CE (Common Era) and available data suggests ice culminations in the 1400s, early to mid-1700s and early to mid-1800s CE. The last LIA maxima lasted until the present deglaciation commenced around 50 yrs. BP (1900 CE). The constraints provided here on the timing and magnitude of LIA glacier fluctuations delivers a more realistic background validation for modelling future ice sheet stability.

Long-term records of glaciers are more than ever crucial to understand their response to climate change. High-quality photogrammetric products, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and orthophotographs from early satellites are essential, as they offer a unique high-resolution view on the historical glacial dynamics. However, obtaining and producing high-resolution datasets from historical imagery can be a challenge. In our study, we are extending available satellite images time series using images from Soviet Era KFA-1000 satellite cameras. Each KFA-1000 has a 1000 mm objective, holding 1800 frames in its magazine. Each frame is typically 18x18 cm or 30 × 30 cm, with an 80 km swath width, providing panchromatic images. They supplement the very sparse data period between aerial images and high-resolution modern satellites, giving us high-resolution insight of Antarctica and Greenland dating from 1974 to 1994. Since these images have been largely underused, they have the potential to improve our knowledge of glaciers and open new scientific perspectives. They could help us improve models in studies regarding, for instance the frontal position, the flow-velocity (by doing feature tracking), the surface elevation or the grounding line of the glaciers, etc. With a spatial resolution up to 2 m and images recorded in stereo geometry, they offer a valuable complement to other historical satellite archives such as the declassified American KH imagery. Here, we use structure-from-motion (SfM) to reconstruct former glacier surfaces and flow of main outlet glaciers in both Antarctica and Greenland. We compare and assess the quality of the results by comparing the produced DEMs with recent high-resolution imagery from Worldview’s ArcticDEM. We combine the historical DEMs with recent satellite imagery of the ice elevation and reconstruct the comprehensive history of volume change over southeast and northeast Greenland glaciers since the 90s. Mostly lost from sight for 50 years, we are now resurrecting these highly valuable records and will make them freely available to science and the public.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, various countries have carried out expeditions to Antarctica with the aim of claiming territory, reconnaissance as well as capturing aerial images for topographic mapping. Many of these image inventories has since then been forgotten and never used for scientific purposes. We have gained access to a unique dataset of aerial images captured in 1936-1937 as a part of the Norwegian Thorshavn IV expedition surveying and mapping large parts of the East Antarctic coastline. The images have a stereo overlap of approximate 60% and are digitized using a photogrammetry-grade scanner, enabling us to produce the earliest known digital elevation models and orthophotos of Antarctica. Expanding the observational records of Antarctic glaciers are vital for better understanding and modelling how changes in climatic parameters affects the ice. Currently, we know very little about the behaviour of Antarctic glaciers prior to the 1990s, due to a lack of large-scale observations. Several studies has proven the effectiveness of using digitally-scanned historical aerial images in studying ice mass losses of the pre-satellite era, but very few such studies exist for Antarctica. In this study, we explore Norwegian and Australian historical aerial expedition images collected between 1937 and 1997 to extensively expand the records and provide the earliest regional-scale Antarctic glacier records. The images are processed using structure-from-motion photogrammetry, which enables us to construct accurate, high-resolution digital elevation models and orthophotos. By combining expedition images with modern satellite data, we are creating a unique time-series dataset to study the changes of multiple glaciers along the East Antarctic coastline in Mac Robertson and Kemp Land between 1937 and 2017.

The distal deposition of tephra from explosive volcanism has the potential to geochronologically constrain sedimentary archives and landforms. With this technique, we constrain a Late Glacial glacier re-advance on Svalbard and suggest that glacioisostatic emergence rates during the Younger Dryas chronozone were at least three times greater than previous estimates. The identification of cryptotephra (i.e., non-visible) horizons, outside the extent of visible fallout, has greatly expanded the field of application of tephrochronology. While the cryptotephra revolution has triggered a burst of investigations using low-concentration tephra to constrain distal sedimentary sequences, as of yet, few investigations have used this tool to constrain the age of glacial landforms. Here we constrain a moraine formed during a glacier re-advance (12.8–12.2 cal ka BP) into a high relative sea level during the early Younger Dryas chronozone, with the first identified occurrence of the Icelandic Vedde Ash on Svalbard. Low concentrations (∼63 shards/g dried sediment) of the bimodal Vedde Ash (rhyolitic long axis c. 30–90 μm; basaltic c. 35–100 μm) were identified in a lake sediment sequence collected from the Heftyebreen glacier foreland, in a tributary valley to Grønfjorden, western Spitsbergen. Given that the cryptotephra was deposited within a lacustrine isolation basin, we further reconstruct a minimum rate of glacio-isostatic emergence during the end of the Late Glacial. Strong and longstanding evidence suggests Svalbard's west-coast cirque glaciers were less extensive during the Late Glacial than the Late Holocene. However, the Late Glacial Heftyebreen moraine suggests Svalbard glacier dynamics during this period may have been more complex.

The response of glaciers and ice caps to past climate change provides important insight into how they will react to ongoing and future global warming. In Svalbard, the Holocene glacial history has been studied for many cirque and valley glaciers. However, little is known about how the larger ice caps in Svalbard responded to Late Glacial and Holocene climate changes. Here we use lake sediment cores and geophysical data from Femmilsjoen, one of Svalbard's largest lakes, to reconstruct the glacial history of the Asgardfonna Ice Cap since the last deglaciation. We find that Femmilsjoen potentially deglaciated prior to 16.1 +/- 0.3 cal ka BP and became isolated from the marine environment between 11.7 +/- 0.3 to 11.3 +/- 0.2 cal ka BP. Glacial meltwater runoff was absent between 10.1 +/- 0.4 and 3.2 +/- 0.2 cal ka BP, indicating that Asgardfonna was greatly reduced or disappeared in the Early and Middle Holocene. Deposition of glacial-meltwater sediments re-commenced in Femmilsjoen at c. 3.2 +/- 0.2 cal ka BP, indicating glacier re-growth in the Femmilsjoen catchment and the onset of the Neoglacial. The glacier(s) in the Femmilsjoen catchment area reached sizes no smaller than their modern extents already at c. 2.1 +/- 0.7 cal ka BP. Our results suggest that larger Svalbard ice caps such as Asgardfonna are very sensitive to climate changes and probably melted completely during the Holocene Thermal Maximum. Such information can be used as important constraints in future ice-cap simulations. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Understanding patterns of colonisation is important for explaining both the distribution of single species and anticipating how ecosystems may respond to global warming. Insular flora may be especially vulnerable because oceans represent severe dispersal barriers. Here we analyse two lake sediment cores from Iceland for ancient sedimentary DNA to infer patterns of colonisation and Holocene vegetation development. Our cores from lakes Torfdalsvatn and Nykurvatn span the last c . 12,000 cal. yr BP and c . 8600 cal. yr BP, respectively. With near-centennial resolution, we identified a total of 191 plant taxa, with 152 taxa identified in the sedimentary record of Torfdalsvatn and 172 plant taxa in the sedimentary record of Nykurvatn. The terrestrial vegetation at Torfdalsvatn was first dominated by bryophytes, arctic herbs such as Saxifraga spp. and grasses. Around 10,100 cal. yr BP, a massive immigration of new taxa was observed, and shrubs and dwarf shrubs became common whereas aquatic macrophytes became dominant. At Nykurvatn, all dominant taxa occurred already in the earliest samples; shrubs and dwarf shrubs were more abundant at this site than at Torfdalsvatn. There was an overall steep increase both in the local and regional species pool until 8000 cal. yr BP, by which time ¾ of all taxa identified had arrived. In the period 4500-1000 cal. yr BP, a few new taxa of bryophytes, graminoids and forbs are identified. The last millennium, after human settlement of the island (Landnám), is characterised by a sudden disappearance of Juniperus communis , but also reappearance of some high arctic forbs and dwarf shrubs. Notable immigration during the Holocene coincides with periods of dense sea-ice cover, and we hypothesise that this may have acted as a dispersal vector. Thus, although ongoing climate change might provide a suitable habitat in Iceland for a large range of species only found in the neighbouring regions today, the reduction of sea ice may in fact limit the natural colonisation of new plant species.

The Arctic is vulnerable to climatic changes on a range of temporal and spatial scales from geological to inter-annual, and a hotspot of warming under modern climate change due to the Arctic Amplification (Serreze & Francis, 2006) — a term for the feedbacks and interactions from the region's sea ice and snow cover resulting in enhanced and accelerated greenhouse gas-induced warming in the Arctic. Recent anthropogenic Abstract We present a 500-year history of naturally felled driftwood incursion to northern Svalbard, directly reflecting regional sea ice conditions and Arctic Ocean circulation. Provenance and age determinations by dendrochronology and wood anatomy provide insights into Arctic Ocean currents and climatic conditions at a fine spatial resolution, as crossdating with reference chronologies from the circum-Arctic boreal forests enables determination of the watershed the driftwood originated from. Sample crossdating may result in a wide range of matches across the pan-boreal region, which may be biased toward regions covered by the reference chronologies. Our study considers alternate approaches to selecting probable origin sites, by weighting scores via reference chronology span and visualizing results through spatiotemporal density plots, as opposed to more basic ranking systems. As our samples come from naturally felled trees (not logged or both), the relative proportions of different provenances are used to infer past ocean current dominance. Our record indicates centennial-to decadal-scale shifts in source regions for driftwood incursion to Svalbard, aligning with Late Holocene high variability and high frequency shifts in the Transpolar Drift and Beaufort Gyre strengths and associated fluctuating climate conditions. Driftwood occurrence and provenance also track the northward ice formation shift in peripheral Arctic seas in the past century. A distinct decrease in driftwood incursion during the last 30 years matches the observed decline in pan-Arctic sea ice extent in recent decades. Our new approach successfully employs driftwood as a proxy for Arctic Ocean surface circulation and sea ice dynamics.

To date the final stage in deglaciation of the Greenland shelf, when a contiguous ice sheet margin on the inner shelf transitioned to outlet glaciers in troughs with intervening ice-free areas, we generated cosmogenic 10Be dates from bedrock knobs on six outlying islands along a stretch of 300 km of the southwestern Greenland coast. Despite 10Be inheritance influencing some dates, the ages generally support a Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) margin that retreated off the inner shelf during the middle Younger Dryas (YD) period. Published 10Be- and 14C-dated records show that this history of the GrIS margin is seen in other parts of Greenland but with large variations in the extent and speed of retreat, sometimes even between neighbouring areas. Areas with a chronology extending into the Allerød period show no marked ice margin change at the Allerød–YD transition except in northernmost Greenland. In contrast, landforms on the shelf (moraines and grounding zone wedges) have been suggested to indicate YD readvances or long-lasting ice margin stillstands on the middle shelf. However, these features have been dated primarily by correlation with cold periods in the ice core temperature records. Ice margin retreat during the middle and late YD is explained by advection of warm subsurface water at the ice margin and by increased seasonality. Our results therefore point to the complexity of the climate–ice margin relation and to the urgent need for direct dating of the early deglaciation history of Greenland.

Although humans have impacted their environment over millennia, details of these impacts, especially on aquatic systems, is still surprisingly scarce despite potential disturbance by early land use. This study examined a high-resolution radiocarbon-dated Holocene record from the Danish Lake Vaeng, using geochemical and biological proxies, and related the observed impacts to other lake records with catchment disturbance. The results indicate a lengthy and varying history of aquatic eutrophication linked to human activity. Modest impacts on the lake coincided with the first signs of landscape disturbance during the Neolithic (c. 4500 cal. yrs BP). Observed impacts intensified in the Late Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Age. Viking Age/Medieval deforestation and erosional inputs to the lake associated with new ploughing technology (1200 cal. yrs BP), however, led to a major reorganisation of the aquatic ecosystem. Filamentous bloom-forming cyanobacteria, common today in heavily culturally impacted lakes, reached a historical maxima. The lake ecosystem subsequently recovered somewhat but remains eutrophic to date. The erosion record from Lake Vaeng shows a striking similarity with other Danish lake records, especially the notable increase in Medieval Period catchment inputs, which are observed in other European lacustrine records. Numerous European lowland lakes may have shifted into a degraded ecological state millennia ago, but degradation intensified during the onset of the Medieval Period. Hence, assuming preindustrial conditions as relatively pristine reference baselines for more recent cultural eutrophication could be flawed in landscapes intensively used by humans for millennia.