Glacial history of the Åsgardfonna Ice Cap, NE Spitsbergen, since the last glaciation

Allaart, Lis; Schomacker, Anders; Larsen, Nicolaj K.; Nørmark, Egon; Rydningen, Tom Arne; Farnsworth, Wesley R.; Retelle, Michael J.; Brynjólfsson, Skafti; Forwick, Matthias; Kjellman, Sofia E.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106717

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 83 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, during these long-term climate periods, shorter shifts from the prevailing main climate trend have occurred 11 , 12 . The late Holocene cool period (4.2 ka BP to present), the so called Neoglacial era, was characterised by increased glacial activity and growth or emergence of glaciers, which were mostly absent during the earlier part of the Holocene 9 , 10 , 13 – 15 . As a direct consequence of glacial advance, prevailing peatlands and vegetated habitats were either buried under glaciers or re-located by moving ice masses, resulting in cessation of peat accumulation 12 , 15 , 16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The late Holocene cool period (4.2 ka BP to present), the so called Neoglacial era, was characterised by increased glacial activity and growth or emergence of glaciers, which were mostly absent during the earlier part of the Holocene 9 , 10 , 13 – 15 . As a direct consequence of glacial advance, prevailing peatlands and vegetated habitats were either buried under glaciers or re-located by moving ice masses, resulting in cessation of peat accumulation 12 , 15 , 16 . Nevertheless, these short- and long-term climate variations have provided alternating conditions for vegetation establishment and development simultaneously promoting accumulation of organic soils and peat.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Newly initiated carbon stock, organic soil accumulation patterns and main driving factors in the High Arctic Svalbard, Norway

Juselius

Ravolainen

Zhang

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

High latitude organic soils form a significant carbon storage and deposition of these soils is largely driven by climate. Svalbard, Norway, has experienced millennial-scale climate variations and in general organic soil processes have benefitted from warm and humid climate phases while cool late Holocene has been unfavourable. In addition to direct effect of cool climate, the advancing glaciers have restricted the vegetation growth, thus soil accumulation. Since the early 1900’s climate has been warming at unprecedented rate, assumingly promoting organic soil establishment. Here we present results of multiple organic soil profiles collected from Svalbard. The profiles have robust chronologies accompanied by soil property analyses, carbon stock estimations and testate amoeba data as a proxy for soil moisture. Our results reveal relatively recent initiation of organic soils across the Isfjorden area. The initiation processes could be linked to glacier retreat, and improvement of growing conditions and soil stabilization. Carbon stock analyses suggested that our sites are hot spots for organic matter accumulation. Testate amoebae data suggested drying of soil surfaces, but the reason remained unresolved. If continued, such a process may lead to carbon release. Our data suggest that detailed palaeoecological data from the Arctic is needed to depict the on-going processes and to estimate future trajectories.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Newly initiated carbon stock, organic soil accumulation patterns and main driving factors in the High Arctic Svalbard, Norway

Juselius

Ravolainen

Zhang

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…8). The two lake's which host the highest elevation GICs within their watersheds today (i.e., Allaart et al, 2021;Røth et al, 2018, Fig. 8, records 1 & 2) show similar glacial histories through the Holocene.…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

“…8, records 1 & 2) show similar glacial histories through the Holocene. The northern most record (i.e., Allaart et al, 2021) is from Femmilsjøen, one of Svalbard's largest lakes, which receives runoff from Longstaffbreen, an outlet of Åsgardfonna ice cap. The record 670 indicates that glaciers existed in Femmilsjøen's catchment after the lake's isolation from the sea (between ~11.7-11.3 ka) until ~10.1 ka.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Glaciers and ice caps through the Holocene: A pan–Arctic synthesis of lake–based reconstructions

Larocca

Axford

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The recent retreat of nearly all glaciers and ice caps (GICs) located in Arctic regions is one of the most clear and visible signs of ongoing climate change. This paper synthesizes published records of Holocene GIC fluctuations from lake archives, placing their recent retreat into a longer–term context. Our compilation includes sixty–six lake–based GIC records (plus one non–lake–based record from the Russian Arctic) from seven Arctic regions: Alaska; the archipelagos of the eastern Canadian Arctic; GICs peripheral to the Greenland Ice Sheet; Iceland; the Scandinavian peninsula; Svalbard; and the Russian high Arctic. For each region, and for the full Arctic, we summarize evidence for when GICs were smaller than today or absent altogether, indicating warmer than present summers, and evidence for when GICs regrew in lake catchments, indicating summer cooling. Consistent with orbitally driven high boreal summer insolation in the early Holocene, the pan–Arctic compilation suggests that the majority (50 % or more) of studied GICs were smaller than present or absent by ~10 ka. The regional compilations suggest even earlier GIC loss, and thus warmth, in the Russian Arctic and in Svalbard. We find the highest percentage (>90 %) of Arctic GICs smaller than present or absent in the middle Holocene ~7–6 ka, probably reflecting more spatially ubiquitous and consistent summer warmth during this period than in the early Holocene. Following this interval of widespread warmth, our compilation shows that GICs across the Arctic began to regrow, and summers began to cool by ~6 ka. Together, the pan–Arctic records also suggest two periods of enhanced GIC growth in the mid–to–late Holocene, from ~4.5–3 ka and after ~2 ka. The regional records show substantial variability in the timing of GIC regrowth within and between regions, suggesting that the Arctic did not cool synchronously despite the smooth and hemispherically symmetric decline in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. In agreement with other studies, this implies a combined response to glacier–specific characteristics such as topography, and to other climatic forcings and feedback mechanisms, perhaps driving periods of increased regional cooling. Today, the direction of orbital forcing continues to favor GIC expansion, however, the rapid retreat of nearly all Arctic GICs underscores the current dominance of anthropogenic forcing on GIC mass balance. Our review finds that in the first half of the Holocene, most of the Arctic’s small GICs became significantly reduced or melted away completely in response to summer temperatures that, on average, were only moderately warmer than today. In comparison, future projections of temperature change in the Arctic far exceed estimated early Holocene values in most locations, portending the eventual loss of most of the Arctic’s small GICs.

show abstract

“…Despite the different causes of the warmer climate in that period and at present, the dramatically smaller extent of glaciers in the first half of the Holocene could provide a benchmark for predicting the consequences of future warming in the Arctic (Allaart et al, 2021; van der Bilt et al, 2019). On the other hand, the glacier dynamics observed in post-Little Ice Age (post-LIA) climate warming may, in accordance with uniformitarianism, be analogous to their behaviour in earlier periods of deglaciation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene ice-free strait followed by dynamic Neoglacial fluctuations: Hornsund, Svalbard

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The recession of the Hornbreen-Hambergbreen glaciers (Hornsund, Svalbard) will lead to the formation of a strait between the Greenland and Barents Seas within a few decades. We provide evidence for the earlier existence of this strait, in the Early–Middle Holocene and presumably since 1.3 ka cal. BP until glacier advance 0.7 ± 0.3 ka or earlier. Radiocarbon dating of mollusc shells from the ground moraines in the Hornbreen forefield indicate the existence of the marine environment at the contemporary glacierized head of Hornsund since 10.9 ka cal. BP or earlier due to glacier retreat. The gap in the radiocarbon dates between 3.9 and 1.3 ka cal. BP and the published results of 10Be exposure dating on Treskelen suggest the strait’s closure after glacier advance in the Neoglacial. Subsequent re-opening occurred around 1.3 ka cal. BP, but according to 10Be dates from Treskelen, the strait has again been closed since ca. 0.7 ± 0.3 ka or earlier. The oldest known surge of Hornbreen occurred around 1900. Analysis of Landsat satellite images, morphometric indicators characterizing the glacier frontal zones and previous studies indicate one surge of Hambergbreen (1957–1968) and five re-advances of Hornbreen in the 20th century (after 1936, between 1958 and 1962, in 1986–1990, 1998–1999, 2011). While the warmer Holocene intervals might be a benchmark for the effects of future climate change, glacier dynamics in post-Little Ice Age climate warming seems to be an analogue of glacier retreats and re-advances in the earlier periods of the Holocene.

show abstract

Glacial history of the Åsgardfonna Ice Cap, NE Spitsbergen, since the last glaciation

Cited by 14 publications

References 83 publications

Newly initiated carbon stock, organic soil accumulation patterns and main driving factors in the High Arctic Svalbard, Norway

Newly initiated carbon stock, organic soil accumulation patterns and main driving factors in the High Arctic Svalbard, Norway

Glaciers and ice caps through the Holocene: A pan–Arctic synthesis of lake–based reconstructions

Holocene ice-free strait followed by dynamic Neoglacial fluctuations: Hornsund, Svalbard

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About