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The Last Interglacial (LIG) experienced substantial changes in seasonal insolation compared with the present day, which may have affected the hydrography and water-mass exchange in the North Sea and Baltic Sea region. Here we investigate the effects of solar radiation and greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing on the regional climate by analyzing model simulations of the LIG (127 ka BP), pre-industrial (PI, 1850 CE), and present-day (PD, 1990 CE) climates. We also interpret the reconstructed seasonal bottom water conditions using benthic foraminifera and geochemistry data. Our simulations reveal that during the LIG, the Baltic Sea region (including the Kattegat and the Danish Straits) experienced more saline and colder bottom waters than those in the PD, in agreement with the reconstruction data. This can be attributed to lower GHG levels and enhanced water exchange of cooler, saline North Sea water into the Baltic Sea during the LIG. The thermocline was stronger during the summer months in the LIG, mainly due to the higher sea surface temperature (SST) compared to that of the PD resulting from increased summer insolation. Further, the temperature anomalies (LIG–PD) show significant inverse correlations with the precipitation–minus–evaporation (P–E) at the Baltic Sea entrance. However, the P–E balance appears to have had minimal impact on salinity changes in the North Sea, the Baltic Proper, and the open sea area. Our findings indicate that monthly surface and bottom water salinity anomalies of LIG-PI exhibit strong positive correlations with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) anomalies in the Baltic entrance region. During the LIG, a more positive phase of the NAO index in autumn played a crucial role in wind-driven major inflows and led to more intensive water exchange in the North Sea–Baltic Sea region compared to the late Holocene.

Climate warming and the resulting acceleration of freshwater discharge from the Greenland Ice Sheet are im­pacting Arctic marine coastal ecosystems, with implications for their biological productivity. To accurately project the fu­ture of coastal ecosystems and place recent trends into per­spective, palaeo-records are essential. Here, we show runoff estimates from the late 19th century to the present day for a large sub-Arctic fjord system (Nuup Kangerlua, southwest Greenland) influenced by both marine- and land-terminating glaciers. We followed a multiproxy approach to reconstruct spatial and temporal trends in primary production from four sediment core records, including diatom fluxes and assem­blage composition changes and biogeochemical and sedi­mentological proxies (total organic carbon, nitrogen, C/N ra­tio, biogenic silica, 813C, 815 N, and grain-size distribution). We show that an abrupt increase in freshwater runoff in the mid-1990s was reflected by a 3-fold increase in biogenic sil­ica fluxes in the glacier-proximal area of the fjord. In addi­tion to increased productivity, freshwater runoff modulates the diatom assemblages and drives the dynamics and mag­nitude of the diatom spring bloom. Our records indicate that marine productivity is higher today than it has been at any point since the late 19th century and suggest that increased mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet may continue promoting high productivity levels at sites proximal to marine ­terminating glaciers. We highlight the importance of palaeo ­records in offering a unique temporal perspective on ice­ ocean-ecosystem responses to climate forcing beyond exist­ing remote sensing or monitoring time series.

The melting of marine terminating glaciers in Northeast Greenland is a visible sign that our climate is changing. This melt has been partly attributed to changes in oceanic heat fluxes, particularly warming of Atlantic Water (AW). Yet our understanding of the interaction between glaciers and the ocean is limited by the length of instrumental records. Here, we present a multi-proxy study (benthic foraminifera assemblages, CT scans, grain size, XRF, and stable isotope data) on core DA17-NG-ST08-092G, located 90 km east of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS). Whilst the exact timing of deglaciation is uncertain, it is certain to have occurred at least as early as 12.5 ka cal BP, and likely before 13.4 ka cal BP. The inflow of AW may have played a role in the seemingly early deglaciation on the Northeast Greenland continental shelf. Following deglaciation, the site was overlain by an ice shelf, with AWand Polar Water (PW) flowing beneath until 11.2 ka cal BP. The NEGIS briefly retreated westwards between 11.2 and 10.8 ka cal BP before our site returned to glacier-proximal conditions dominated by colder subsurface water and persistent AW flowing beneath (10.8e9.6 ka cal BP). Between 9.6 and 7.9 ka cal BP the NEGIS retreated westwards; there was a continued presence of AWand PW at the site. A drastic shift in ocean circulation occurred at 7.9 ka cal BP, with a decline in AW flow and dominance of PW flowing beneath perennial sea ice. During the Late Holocene, there was return of AW and likely breakup of perennial sea ice.

Sediment core ER11-16 from Køge Bugt in Southeast Greenland is used to assess early Holocene palaeoceanographic changes and sediment rafting from icebergs calved from the large outlet glaciers in the area. Diatom analysis reconstructs variability in surface water temperature, salinity and sea-ice concentrations, and benthic foraminiferal assemblages is used to reconstruct subsurface ocean conditions. We report Holocene Thermal Maximum in Southeast Greenland during the early Holocene (at least since onset of the record 9100 cal yr BP) until around 4500 cal yr BP, which contrasts with a delay until the mid-Holocene of the Holocene Thermal Maximum in South and Southwest Greenland. The early Holocene warming in Southeast Greenland was caused by a combination of high solar insolation and a weakened subpolar gyre, both of which served to warm the Irminger Current waters subducting onto the shelf. At the same time, the surface temperature was relatively high and sea-ice cover in the polar surface waters of the East Greenland Current was relatively low. High levels of iceberg rafting occurred in Køge Bugt during the early Holocene, synchronously with these warm oceanic temperatures. This is attributed to an increase in iceberg production from the extensive, but retreating, Greenland Ice Sheet. The warm surface conditions were interrupted by a marked and short-lived increase in sea ice around 8200 years ago, providing the first evidence of this global cold episode in Southeast Greenland. After 4500 cal. yr BP, sea-ice cover increased with an expansion of the East Greenland Current, suppressing the inflow of warmer subsurface Irminger Current water to the Southeast Greenland shelf. We relate this oceanic shift to the decreased Northern Hemisphere summer solar insolation. Multi-centennial variability is observed in the grain size spectrum of iceberg rafted debris; a finding we interpret in the context of palaeoceanographic changes.

Anthropogenic forcing has led to an increased extent of hypoxic bottom areas in the Baltic Sea during recent decades. The Baltic Sea ecosystem is naturally prone to the development of hypoxic conditions due to its geographical, hydrographical, geological, and climate features. Besides the current spreading of hypoxia, the Baltic Sea has experienced two extensive periods of hypoxic conditions during the Holocene, caused by changing climate conditions during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM; 8–4.8 cal ka BP) and the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; 1–0.7 cal ka BP). We studied the variations in surface and bottom water salinity and primary productivity and their relative importance for the development and termination of hypoxia by using microfossil and geochemical data from a sediment core retrieved from the Landsort Deep during IODP Expedition 347 (Site M0063). Our findings demonstrate that increased salinity was of major importance for the development of hypoxic conditions during the HTM. In contrast, we could not clearly relate the termination of this hypoxic period to salinity changes. The reconstructed high primary productivity associated with the hypoxic period during the MCA is not accompanied by considerable increases in salinity. Our proxies for salinity show a decreasing trend before, during and after the MCA. Therefore, we suggest that this period of hypoxia is primarily driven by increasing temperatures due to the warmer climate. These results highlight the importance of natural climate driven changes in salinity and primary productivity for the development of hypoxia during a warming climate. This research was supported by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Grants 1562/3.1.1/2013 and 2207/3.1.1/2014), the Swedish Research Council (Grant 826- 2012-5114), the Carlsberg Foundation (IVAR-347 project) and Geocenter Denmark (DAN-IODP-SEIS project), the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Grant 7014-00113B, G-Ice), and the German Research Foundation (DFG, projects Ko3944/6-1 and Ko3944/8–1).

The recent rapid decline in Arctic sea ice cover has increased the need to improve the accuracy of the sea ice component in climate models and to provide detailed long-term sea ice concentration records, which are only available via proxy data. Recently, the highly branched isoprenoid IP25, identified in marine sediments underlying seasonal sea ice, has emerged as a potential sea ice specific proxy for past sea ice cover. We tested the reliability of this biomarker as a sea ice proxy against observational sea ice data (sea ice concentrations from the global HadISST1 database) and against a more established sea ice proxy (sea ice diatom abundance in sediments) in the South-West (SW) Labrador Sea. Furthermore, our study location at the southern margin of Arctic sea ice drift provided a new environmental setting in which to further test the novel PIP25 index. Our two study sites are located North-East (NE) and South-East (SE) of Newfoundland where box cores covering the last ca 100-150 years were collected. IP25 concentrations are nearly an order of magnitude higher and sea ice diatoms more abundant in sediments from NE of Newfoundland, where sea ice prevails 2-4 months per year compared to the sediments SE of Newfoundland, where conditions are generally ice-free year round. The IP25 fluxes NE of Newfoundland agree well with multi-decadal North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) trends in the study area, which in previous studies have been shown to affect the climatic and sea ice conditions in the region. When assessed against observational sea ice data, IP25 appears to be a more sensitive indicator of sea ice variability in this setting compared to sea ice diatoms and proved to be a robust and reliable proxy for reconstructing low-frequency variability in past sea ice concentrations. The PIP25 index results clearly differ from the observed sea ice data underlining that caution needs to be exercised when using the index in different environmental settings. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

On the north-eastern margin of the Danish Basin (part of the Mesozoic North Sea Basin) the Upper Pliensbachian to Toarcian succession represents the early phase of delta outbuilding, involving marine shelf, distal prodelta and proximal prodelta environments. The marine shelf conditions are characterized by calcareous foraminiferal assemblages dominated by the suborder Lagenina. The prodelta environments are typified by low-diversity agglutinated assemblages concentrated in discrete stratigraphical horizons. In total seventeen foraminiferal species were recognized, the following five of which are described here for the first time: Haplophragmoides propygmaeus, Ammobaculites bivarians, Annnobaculites nanogyrus, Kutsevella spilota, and Bulbobaculites vermiculus. The taxonomic treatment has also lead to a revised biostratigraphic scheme subdividing the foraminiferal succession into six assemblages confined to discrete stratigraphical intervals.