Location and ages of terrestrial peatlands located on continental shelves and in coastal sediments

This synthesis dataset contains records of freshwater peat and lake sediments from continental shelves and coastal areas. Information included is site location (when available), thickness and description of terrestrial sediments as well as underlying and overlying sediments, dates (when available), and references.

(Table 1) Age determination of composite sediment record LO09-14

A sediment core from Reykjanes Ridge has been studied at 10- to 50-year time resolution to document variability of Holocene surface water conditions in the western North Atlantic and to evaluate effects of Holocene ice-rafting episodes. Diatom assemblages are converted to quantitative sea surface temperatures (SST) using three different transfer functions. Spectral and scale-space methods are also applied on the records to explore variability at different timescales. Diatom assemblage and SST records clearly show that decaying remnants of the Laurentide ice sheet strongly influenced early Holocene climate in the western North Atlantic. This overrode the predominance of Milankovitch forcing, which played a key role in the development of Holocene climate in the eastern North Atlantic and Nordic Seas. Superimposed on general Holocene climate change is high-frequency SST variability on the order of 1°-3°C. The record also documents climatic oscillations with 600- to 1000-, ~1500-, and 2500-year periodicities, with a time-dependent dominance of different periodicities through the Holocene; a clear change in variability occurred about 5 ka BP. The SST record also provides evidence for Holocene cooling events (HCE) that, in some cases, correlate to documented southward intrusions of ice into the North Atlantic.

(Table 1) Age determination of Barents Sea sediment cores

he separate roles of oceanic heat advection and orbital forcing on influencing early Holocene temperature variability in the eastern Nordic Seas is investigated. The effect of changing orbital forcing on the ocean temperatures is tested using the 1DICE model, and the 1DICE results are compared with new and previously published temperature reconstructions from a transect of five cores located underneath the pathway of Atlantic water, from the Faroe-Shetland Channel in the south to the Barents Sea in the north. The stronger early Holocene summer insolation at high northern latitudes increased the summer mixed layer temperatures, however, ocean temperatures underneath the summer mixed layer did not increase significantly. The absolute maximum in summer mixed layer temperatures occurred between 9 and 6 ka BP, representing the Holocene Thermal Maximum in the eastern Nordic Seas. In contrast, maximum in northward oceanic heat transport through the Norwegian Atlantic Current occurred approximately 10 ka BP. The maximum in oceanic heat transport at 10 ka BP occurred due to a major reorganization of the Atlantic Ocean circulation, entailing strong and deep rejuvenation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, combined with changes in the North Atlantic gyre dynamic causing enhanced transport of heat and salt into the Nordic Seas.