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The Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) was the largest ice sheet during the last glacial period. An accurate representation of its behavior during the last deglaciation is critical to understanding its influence on and response to a changing climate. We use 10Be dating and Bayesian modeling to track the recession of the southwest sector of the Labrador Dome of the LIS along an ~500-km-long transect west of Lake Superior during the last deglaciation. This transect reflects terrestrial ice-margin retreat and crosses multiple moraine sets, with the southwestern part of the transect deglaciated by ca. 19 ka and the northeastern part deglaciated by ca. 10 ka. The predominant behavior of the ice margin during this interval is near-constant retreat with retreat rates varying between ~59 m/a and 38 m/a. The moraine sets mark standstills and/or readvances that in total constitute only ~17% of the retreat interval. The spatial and temporal pattern of ice-margin retreat tracked here differs from existing reconstructions that are based on using isochrons to define ice-margin positions. Acknowledging the uncertainties associated with the modeled ages of ice-margin retreat, we suggest that the overall retreat pattern is consistent with forcing by a gradual increase in Northern Hemisphere, high-latitude summer insolation. The pattern of ice-margin retreat is inconsistent with Greenland ice-core temperature records, and thus these records may not be suitable to drive models of the LIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Patterns that maintain and generate biodiversity of macro‐organisms in the Neotropics are widely discussed in the scientific literature, yet the spatial ecology of micro‐organisms is largely unknown. The unique character of the tropical Andes and adjacent Amazon lowlands generates a wide gradient of environmental conditions to advance our understanding of what drives community assembly and diversity processes. We analysed the distribution patterns of benthic diatoms (unicellular siliceous algae) as a model group of microbial passive dispersers, including predictors that describe limnological and geo‐climatic gradients for a total of 113 waterbodies (0–28°S and 58–80°W), including lakes and streams. Complementary multivariate statistical analyses were performed to correlate (1) community composition and (2) diatom species richness with environmental and spatial factors to infer niche‐based and dispersal‐based assembly processes, respectively. Results showed that two gradients structured both diatom assemblages and waterbodies, namely climate and landscape configuration. Variance partitioning revealed that broadscale spatial variables (distance‐based Moran's Eigenvectors) outperformed the two environmental components (limnological and geo‐climatic), suggesting dispersal‐assembled communities. However, diatom assemblages were structured by geo‐climatic (regional) factors in certain lakes in the northern and central Andes, although their effects were partially manifested via local variables after the geographical distances were factored out. In a similar way, climatic and topographic structuring homogenized lake and stream communities within ecoregions, as indicated by the strong overlap between the two community types and the weak correlation between biota and limnological variables. Notably, a significant increase in diatom species richness was related to increased water connectivity, interpreted to indicate that a decrease in the remoteness of the system increase species number. Synthesis. We emphasize the strength of macroecological gradients (landscape configuration and climatic factors) in affecting both diatom diversity and community composition in the South American tropics. In this context, our results and the commonalities of ecoregion patterning with groups of macro‐organisms (vegetation) suggest the need to integrate microbial ecology into a macroecology framework to unravel mechanisms behind diversity gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Greenland Ice Sheet is a major component of the Arctic cryosphere and the magnitude of its response to future climate changes remains uncertain. Longer-term records of climate near the ice sheet margin provide information about natural climate variability and can be used to understand the causes of past changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet. As a proxy for Holocene climate near the ice sheet margin, we reconstruct the fluctuations of Bregne ice cap in the Scoresby Sund region of central east Greenland. Bregne is a small ice cap (2.5 km2 in area) and responds sensitively to summer temperatures. We employ a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct the ice cap fluctuations using geomorphic mapping, 10Be ages of boulders and bedrock and lake sediment records. Past extents of Bregne ice cap are marked by moraines and registered by sediments in downvalley lakes. 10Be ages of bedrock and boulders outboard of the moraines indicate that Bregne ice cap was within ∼250 m of its present-day limit by at least 10.7 ka. Multi-proxy data from sediments in Two Move lake, located downvalley from Bregne ice cap, indicate that the ice cap likely completely disappeared during early and middle Holocene time. Increasing magnetic susceptibility and percent clastic material from ∼6.5 to ∼1.9 cal ka BP in Two Move lake sediments suggest progressively colder conditions and increased snow accumulation on the highlands west of the lake. Laminated silt deposited at ∼2.6 cal ka BP and ∼1.9 cal ka BP to present registers the onset and persistence of Bregne ice cap during the late Holocene. 10Be ages of boulders on an unweathered, unvegetated moraine in the Bregne ice cap forefield range from 0.74 to 9.60 ka. The youngest 10Be age (0.74 ka) likely represents the age of the moraine whereas older ages may be due to 10Be inherited from prior periods of exposure. This late Holocene moraine marks the second largest advance of the ice cap since deglaciation of the region at the end of the last ice age. The oldest moraine in the forefield dates to ≤2.6 cal ka BP. The fluctuations of Bregne ice cap were likely influenced by Northern Hemisphere summer insolation throughout the Holocene and abrupt late Holocene cold events. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The temporal and spatial patterns of late Holocene climate conditions provide valuable information for testing hypothesized mechanisms of recent climate changes. As a proxy for late Holocene climate in the southern tropics, we present a 10Be chronology of moraines deposited by Qori Kalis, an outlet glacier of Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru. The Qori Kalis moraines are located downflow from the Quelccaya ice cores and provide the first glacial extent record that can be compared directly to annually resolved tropical ice core records. Qori Kalis advanced to its late Holocene maximum extent prior to 520 ± 60 yr before CE 2009, when Quelccaya ice core net accumulation values were at or below their late Holocene average. Subsequent glacial retreat between ~520 and 330 yr before CE 2009 coincides with the highest net accumulation values of the ~1800-yr-long ice core record. Therefore, we suggest that temperature, rather than net accumulation, was the primary driver of these glacial fluctuations. Comparison of the late Holocene fluctuations of Qori Kalis glacier with glaciers in the southern tropical Andes, Patagonian Andes, Switzerland, Alaska and New Zealand suggests globally synchronous, centennial-scale cold events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface height and mass balance changes of Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers within Juneau Icefield, Alaska, are examined to determine the relationship between these parameters and climatic forcing. Both Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers are located in a maritime climate, but they behave very differently. Taku Glacier, a former tidewater glacier, is ~70 times larger than Lemon Creek Glacier, and its dynamics are largely a result of the post-tidewater glacier cycle which causes insensitivity to climate change during advance phases. Taku Glacier is advancing at present but its surface height, mass balance, and rate of advance have decreased since 1988. Lemon Creek Glacier, a small alpine glacier, is retreating and has maintained a negative mass balance since 1953. Mass balance records from both Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers correlate well with temperature and show little correlation with precipitation. The mass balance of these glaciers also correlates with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). However, the Lemon Creek Glacier mass balance record shows a stronger correlation with the PDO than that of Taku Glacier. Taku Glacier shows a longer delay in response to warming in Southeast Alaska likely due to post-tidewater glacier dynamics, its large accumulation area ratio (AAR), and its size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Greenland Ice Sheet is undergoing dynamic changes that will have global implications if they continue into the future. In this regard, an understanding of how the ice sheet responded to past climate changes affords a baseline for anticipating future behavior. Small, independent ice caps adjacent to the Greenland Ice Sheet (hereinafter called “local ice caps”) are sensitive indicators of the response of Greenland ice-marginal zones to climate change. Therefore, we reconstructed late Holocene ice-marginal fluctuations of the local Istorvet ice cap in east Greenland, using radiocarbon dates of subfossil plants, 10Be dates of surface boulders, and analyses of sediment cores from both threshold and control lakes. During the last termination, the Istorvet ice cap had retreated close to its maximum Holocene position by ∼11,730 cal yr BP. Radiocarbon dates of subfossil plants exposed by recent recession of the ice margin indicate that the Istorvet cap was smaller than at present from AD 200 to AD 1025. Sediments from a threshold lake show no glacial input until the ice cap advanced to within 365 m of its Holocene maximum position by ∼AD 1150. Thereafter the ice cap remained at or close to this position until at least AD 1660. The timing of this, the most extensive of the Holocene, expansion is similar to that recorded at some glaciers in the Alps and in southern Alaska. However, in contrast to these other regions, the expansion in east Greenland at AD 1150 appears to have been very close to, if not at, a maximum Holocene value. Comparison of the Istorvet ice-cap fluctuations with Holocene glacier extents in Southern Hemisphere middle-to-high latitude locations on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the Andes and the Southern Alps suggests an out-of-phase relationship. If correct, this pattern supports the hypothesis that a bipolar see-saw of oceanic and/or atmospheric circulation during the Holocene produced asynchronous glacier response at some localities in the two polar hemispheres. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Elucidating the timing and regional extent of abrupt climate events during the last glacial-interglacial transition (∼18–11.5 ka) is critical for identifying spatial patterns and mechanisms responsible for large-magnitude climate events. The record of climate change in the Southern Hemisphere during this time period, however, remains scarce and unevenly distributed. We present new geomorphic, chronological, and equilibrium line altitude (ELA) data from a climatically sensitive mountain glacier at Monte San Lorenzo (47°S), Central Patagonia. Twenty-four new cosmogenic 10 Be exposure ages from moraines provide a comprehensive glacial record in the mid-latitudes of South America, which constrain the timing, spatial extent and magnitude of glacial fluctuations during the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR, ∼14.5–12.9 ka). Río Tranquilo glacier advanced and reached a maximum extent at 13.9 ± 0.7 ka. Three additional inboard moraines afford statistically similar ages, indicating repeated glacier expansions or marginal fluctuations over the ACR. Our record represents the northernmost robust evidence of glacial fluctuations during the ACR in southern South America, documenting not only the timing of the ACR maximum, but also the sequence of glacier changes within this climate event. Based on ELA reconstructions, we estimate a cooling of >1.6–1.8 °C at the peak of the ACR. The Río Tranquilo record along with existing glacial reconstructions from New Zealand (43°S) and paleovegetation records from northwestern (41°S) and central-west (45°S) Patagonia, suggest an uniform trans-Pacific glacier-climate response to an ACR trigger across the southern mid-latitudes. We posit that the equatorial migration of the southern westerly winds provides an adequate mechanism to propagate a common ACR signal across the Southern Hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the late Quaternary paleoclimate record through climate interpretations of low-latitude glacier length changes advances our understanding of past climate change events and the mechanisms for past, present, and future climate change. Paleotemperature reconstructions at low-latitude glaciers are uniquely fruitful because they can provide both site-specific information and enhanced understanding of regional-scale variations due to the structure of the tropical atmosphere. We produce Little Ice Age (LIA) and Younger Dryas (YD) paleoclimate reconstructions for the Huancané outlet glacier of the Quelccaya Ice Cap (QIC) and low-latitude southern hemisphere regional sea surface temperatures (SSTs) using a coupled ice-flow and energy balance model. We also model the effects of long-term changes in the summit temperature and precipitiation rate and the effects of interannual climate variability on the Huancané glacier length. We find temperature to be the dominant climate driver of glacier length change. Also, we find that interannual climate variability cannot adequately explain glacier advances inferred from the geomorphic record, necessitating that these features were formed during past colder climates. To constrain our LIA reconstruction, we incorporate the QIC ice core record, finding a LIA air temperature cooling at the ice cap of between ∼0.7 °C and ∼1.1 °C and ∼0.4 °C and regional SSTs cooling of ∼0.6 °C. For the YD paleoclimate reconstructions, we propose two limits on the precipitation rate, since the ice core record does not extend into the Pleistocene: 1) the precipitation rate scales with the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship (upper limit on cooling) and 2) the precipitation rate increases by 40% (lower limit on cooling), which is an increase about twice as great as the regional increases realized in GCM simulations for the period. The first limit requires ∼1.6 °C cooling in ice cap air temperatures and ∼0.9 °C cooling in SSTs, and the second limit requires ∼1.0 °C cooling in ice cap air temperatures and ∼0.5 °C cooling in SSTs. Our temperature reconstructions are in good agreement with the magnitude and trend of GCM simulations that incorporate the forcing mechanisms hypothesized to have caused these climate change events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shrinking glaciers, melting permafrost, and reduced sea ice all indicate rapid contraction of the Arctic cryosphere in response to present-day climate warming, a trajectory that is expected to continue, if not accelerate. The reaction of the Arctic cryosphere to past periods of climate variation can afford insight into its present and future behavior. Here, we examine a ∼12,000 year record of glacier fluctuations and meltwater variation associated with the Renland Ice Cap, East Greenland, that extends from the early Holocene thermal optimum through the cooling of the Little Ice Age to present. Sediment records from glacially fed lakes indicate rapid early Holocene deglaciation, with ice extent likely slightly smaller than at present by ∼9500 yr BP. Glacial activity resulted in occasional deposition of rock flour in the studied lakes in the early Holocene until at least ∼7500 yr BP. Rock flour is absent for much of the period ∼7000-4000 yr BP, suggesting ice extent generally was smaller than at present. However, thin layers of blue-gray clay throughout this period may indicate millennial-scale ice expansions, with Renland Ice Cap briefly reaching extents during cold phases that may have been similar to today. Glacial sediment deposition occurred again in the late Holocene at ∼3200–3400 yr BP and was followed by a brief glacial episode at ∼1340 yr BP and then a major event beginning shortly after ∼1050 yr BP. We infer that rock flour deposition in the lakes in the last millennium corresponds with advance of Renland glaciers to their Little Ice Age positions, marked by a fresh, gray drift limit. Radiocarbon dates of in situ plant remains adjacent to the present ice cap indicate a short relatively warm period ∼500 yr ago, when ice was within its AD 2011 limit, followed by glacier readvance. The general pattern of ice fluctuations in Renland is similar to that at other ice caps in the region, but also has important differences, including the preservation of a possible mid-Holocene record at times when lower-elevation ice caps in the Scoresby Sund region may have been absent. This finding reinforces the concept that examination of multiple geographic and geomorphologic settings is necessary for a full understanding of ice variations in a region. • Sediments from glacially fed lakes constrain the Holocene history of Renland Ice Cap. • Ice extent was similar to or smaller than at present by ∼10,000 yr BP. • Millennial-scale glacier fluctuations occurred throughout the Holocene. • Examination of multiple geographic settings is necessary for a full understanding of ice variations in a region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To put recent Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) ice loss into a longer-term context, we must understand its behavior during late-glacial and Early Holocene warming. Previous results seem to suggest that there is a large contrast in the timing of deglaciation between South and Southeast Greenland. However, because of lack of available data, in particular in Southeast Greenland, it is difficult to assess how the ice sheet responded to major late-glacial and Early Holocene climate changes. In this study, we use 41 new 10Be ages to constrain the deglaciation chronology in 12 new locations from the coast to the present ice margin in South and Southeast Greenland. We find that South Greenland (south of 61.5°N) deglaciated between ∼14.8 and 11.9 ka, whereas Southeast Greenland (61.5°N to 68.2°N) deglaciated between ∼11.4 and 11.3 ka. The deglaciation of the coastal, low-intermediate topography in South Greenland coincides with increased air surface temperatures during the Bølling-Allerød with fjords continuing to deglaciate into the Early Holocene. In contrast, the ice sheet persisted at the coast until the late-glacial and Early Holocene in Southeast Greenland, likely because of increased precipitation in the high alpine topography and fjord geometry and bathymetry (e.g. width of fjords and presence of sills). This multi-phased deglaciation demonstrates a contrasting response of the southern GrIS to changes in climate and variations in topographic setting, and that the spatial deglaciation of the GrIS was complex and likely did not respond to a single external climate forcing. • Deglaciation began in South Greenland by 14.8 ka coeval with rising air temperature. • Warm Atlantic water likely drove deglaciation during the Younger Dryas. • Ice retreated from Southeast Greenland coast by 11.3 ka when air temperatures rose. • Evidence of a Neoglacial advance occurs in Southeast Greenland by ∼1.9 ka. • Local climate, topography and fjord geometry/bathymetry likely mediated ice retreat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]