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This paper presents a review on more than hundred years of palaeoenvironmental research in Sweden; from early descriptions of peat and tufa deposits in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to multiproxy transfer function studies in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries CE. Research on Holocene climate variability has a long history in Sweden and many ideas and concepts about changes in temperature and precipitation during the Holocene originated in Fennoscandia. The Holocene climate evolution in Sweden follows a pattern in common for many northern latitude records with a rapid warming starting at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary at c. 11 650 cal a BP, followed by the middle Holocene thermal maximum between c. 8000 and 5000 cal a BP. A change to colder and wetter conditions starts c. 4000 cal a BP and lasts until the late 1800 s CE. There is evidence for climatic anomalies such as the 8.2 and 4.2 ka BP events and the Little Ice Age (LIA) but only inconclusive evidence for other events, such as the 10.3 ka BP event. The main pattern of Holocene climate and environmental evolution is well known for most parts of Sweden, but the present review also shows that several research questions remain to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Värmland in south western Sweden lies across the established zone of marine-terrestrial transition of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) margin. The region lies inside the Younger Dryas maximum limit reached at 12.7 cal ka BP and the area of rapid final SIS retreat from 11.5 cal ka BP. LiDAR data across Värmland allows more detailed observation and analysis of glacial landforms formed during this stage than previously possible. This study synthesises geomorphological mapping performed on highly detailed digital elevation models (DEMs) and field observations across the region around Torsby in northern Värmland to reconstruct the dynamics of the ice sheet as it retreated. Several landforms that developed during deglaciation are identified and clearly reflect the change from a marine to terrestrially terminating ice margin. Ice-marginal deltas suggest a slowing of retreat at the point of marine-terrestrial transition. Increased topographic control on ice-sheet flow, pattern of drainage and ice sheet decay is indicated by the distribution of streamlined terrain, eskers, and outwash material. Hummocky terrain across low ground and incised valleys suggest persistence of ice in topographic lows beyond the retreat of the main ice front. Combined analysis of identified landforms allows a model for the pattern of retreat to be produced that traces the retreating ice sheet margin in far greater detail than previously has been possible in this area. This provides important data for understanding the final retreat of the SIS and details processes likely occurring beneath the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-resolution digital elevation model has been used to locate a large and previously unknown landslide in glacial-marine sediments in southwest Sweden. Interpretation of the geomorphology and stratigraphy allow for bracketing of paleo-sea level to between 68 and 71 m above sea level when the landslide occurred. Existing sea-level curves suggest that this elevation would have emerged above sea level, and the landslide would have occurred, about 10 800 calendar years before the present. We suggest that the presence of a confined aquifer beneath the area that slid created a weakness in the slope upon which it eventually failed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peat deposits from the littoral part of the wetland 2nd Pond on Nightingale Island in the central South Atlantic have been analysed to investigate the Holocene climate development on the island and to test a hypothesis about regionally persistent humidity variations. A variety of proxies were analysed – total carbon and nitrogen, biogenic silica, diatoms, amount of organic matter, macrofossils and magnetic susceptibility – and together with the lithology they are interpreted as a record reflecting changes in humidity/precipitation. Early Holocene (10,000–8500 cal. BP) was possibly significantly drier than today, probably caused by a southerly displacement of the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies (SHW) during the Antarctic climate optimum. From 8500 cal. BP and onwards, the climate became generally more humid and surface run-off increased due to higher precipitation, possibly as an effect of increased influence from the SHW as it moved north. During this generally humid period, our data disclose a distinct pattern of recurrent centennial- to millennial-long events of increased precipitation and the results corroborate the only other study in the region with a similar humidity record. The events might represent large-scale climate oscillations in the Southern Hemisphere, such as latitudinal shifts of the SHW, but may also be related to changes in sea surface temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]