The Svaldbard Archipelago is sensitive to changes ocean/atmosphere circulation in the Norwegian Sea because it lies at the northern limit of the North Atlantic Drift referred to as (the Gulf Stream off eastern North America). Rapid deglaciation of this archipelago occurred during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Local glaciers were absent or contracted throughout most of the early Holocene, but more recently these glaciers have expanded. It is known that they were more advanced during the Little Ice Age (ca 600 to 50 years before present) than now, but the timing of the onset of Neoglaciation and its relationship to climate change remains largely unknown. This study addresses the timing of Neoglaciation and Holocene climate change through laboratory analysis of a series of sediment cores recovered from Lake Linne, a low-elevation lake on western Spitsbergen that was an arm of the sea until about 8,000 years ago. These cores are the longest and most extensive ever recovered from a high-latitude lake; as such, they offer a high-resolution proxy record environmental change during the past 8,000 years. The history of local cirque glacier activity will be interpreted from the record of exotic pollen influx. These two independent proxy records of Holocene climate change will lead to improved understanding of the timing and climatic controls on high-latitude glaciation.
