Characterise and identify the glacigenic sediments in lake sediments at Vårfluesjøen, derived from subpolar glaciers in the Arctic

Data sets and time series are limited from the high-Arctic and is therefore urgently needed in order to understand past climate fluctuations and the natural climate variability in the Arctic. Glaciers are excellent indicators of past climate and can help us to better understand the natural climate variability in the Holocene. Based on previous experience and knowledge we will further investigate how glaciers at Svalbard have fluctutated throughout the Holocene (Røthe et al. 2015). In order to shed lights on the climate dynamics influencing glaciers on Svalbard during the early Holocene, to investigate whether or not the glaciers melted away during the Holocene Climatic Optimum on Svalbard and last the timing the onset of the Neoglacial on Svalbard. The project will study lake sediment cores from Vårfluesjøen in order to unravel the past fluctuations of glaciers at the northern rim of Svalbard. By using the new research facilities of EARTHLAB at University of Bergen, we aim to explore the sediments deposited in a glacier-fed lake in the Arctic. This multi-proxy approach will focus on the inorganic component in the sediment record by quantifying the glacigenic input to the lake. Age-control will be achieved by selective picking macrofossils for radiocarbon dating and the upper-most sediment will be subsampled for 210Pb dating. If successful the results will extend the knowledge of Holocene palaeoclimate on the western coast of Svalbard.