No abstract

International audienc

Large-scale coupling between headwater catchments and downstream depocentres is a critical influence on long-term fluvial system behaviour and on the creation of the fluvial sedimentary record. However, it is often difficult to examine this control over multiple Quaternary glacial cycles and it has not been fully explored in karst basins. By investigating the Pleistocene glacial and fluvial records on and around Mount Orjen (1894 m) in Montenegro, we show how the changing connectivity between glaciated mountain headwater source zones and downstream alluvial basins is a key feature of long-term karst system behaviour e especially in relation to the creation and preservation of the surface sedimentary record. Middle and Late Pleistocene glacial deposits are well preserved on Mount Orjen. Uranium-series dating of 27 carbonate cements in fluvial sediments shows that many alluvial depocentres were completely filled with coarse glacial outwash before 350 ka during the largest recorded glaciation. This major glaciation is correlated with the Skamnellian Stage in Greece and Marine Isotope Stage 12 (MIS 12, c 480 e420 ka). This was a period of profound landscape change in many glaciated catchments on the Balkan Peninsula. Later glaciations were much less extensive and sediment supply to fluvial systems was much diminished. The extreme base level falls of the Late Miocene produced the world's deepest karst networks around the Mediterranean. After MIS 12, the subterranean karst of Mount Orjen formed the dominant pathway for meltwater and sediment transfer so that the depositional basins below 1000 m became disconnected (uncoupled) from the glaciated headwaters. There is little evidence of post-MIS 12 aggradation or incision in these basins. This absence of later Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial activity means these basins contain some of the thickest and best-preserved outwash deposits in the Mediterranean.

In the Northern Hemisphere, most mountain glaciers experienced their largest extent in the last millennium during the Little Ice Age (1450 to 1850 CE, LIA), a period marked by colder hemispheric temperatures than the Medieval Climate Anomaly (950 to 1250 CE, MCA), a period which coincided with glacier retreat. Here, we present a new moraine chronology based on 36Cl surface exposure dating from Lyngmarksbræen glacier, West Greenland. Consistent with other glaciers in the western Arctic, Lyngmarksbræen glacier experienced several advances during the last millennium, the first one at the end of the MCA, in ~1200 CE, was of similar amplitude to two other advances during the LIA. In the absence of any significant changes in accumulation records from South Greenland ice cores, we attribute this expansion to multi-decadal summer cooling likely driven by volcanic and/or solar forcing, and associated regional sea-ice feedbacks. Such regional multi-decadal cold conditions at the end of the MCA are neither resolved in temperature reconstructions from other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, nor captured in last millennium climate simulations.

No abstract

Understanding Arctic glacier sensitivity is key to predicting future response to air temperature rise. Previous studies have used proglacial lake sediment records to reconstruct Holocene glacier advance–retreat patterns in South and West Greenland, but high‐resolution glacier records from High Arctic Greenland are scarce, despite the sensitivity of this region to future climate change. Detailed geochemical analysis of proglacial lake sediments close to Zackenberg, northeast Greenland, provides the first high‐resolution record of Late Holocene High Arctic glacier behaviour. Three phases of glacier advance have occurred in the last 2000 years. The first two phases (c. 1320–800 cal. a BP) occurred prior to the Little Ice Age (LIA), and correspond to the Dark Ages Cold Period and the Medieval Climate Anomaly. The third phase (c. 700 cal. a BP), representing a smaller scale glacier oscillation, is associated with the onset of the LIA. Our results are consistent with recent evidence of pre‐LIA glacier advance in other parts of the Arctic, including South and West Greenland, Svalbard, and Canada. The sub‐millennial glacier fluctuations identified in the Madsen Lake succession are not preserved in the moraine record. Importantly, coupled XRF and XRD analysis has effectively identified a phase of ice advance that is not visible by sedimentology alone. This highlights the value of high‐resolution geochemical analysis of lake sediments to establish rapid glacier advance–retreat patterns in regions where chronological and morphostratigraphical control is limited.

International audienc

12 13Pedogenic calcretes are widespread in arid and semi-arid regions. Using calcrete profiles from four 14 river terraces of the Rio Alias in southeast Spain, this study explores the potential of using detailed 15 micromorphological and stable isotopic analysis to more fully understand the impacts of Quaternary 16 environmental change on calcrete development. The four profiles increase in carbonate complexity 17 with progressive age, reflecting calcretisation over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles since MIS 9 (c. to the same environmental parameter, which is inferred to be relative aridity. The study reveals that 23 the detailed co-analysis of calcrete micromorphology and stable isotope signatures can allow patterns 24 of calcrete formation to be placed into a wider palaeoclimatic context. This demonstrates the potential 25 of this technique to more reliably constrain the palaeoenvironmental significance of secondary 26 carbonates in dryland settings where other proxy records may be poorly preserved. 27 28