Holocene environmental history of western Ymer O, East Greenland, inferred from lake sediments

Sediment records from two adjacent lakes on western Ymer phi, East Greenland, were investigated for chronology, lithology, biogeochemistry, palynology and marine fossils. The data indicate that lowland deglaciation in this interior coastal region has commenced prior to 10,000 cal. yr BP. This suggests a rapid ice retreat after the Milne Land stade. Deglaciation was followed by a marine inundation that peaked out between 60 and 120 in above the modern sea level, The middle Holocene uplift rate in this interior region of East Greenland probably was lower and more constant than assumed by previous investigations and as in the central and outer coastal areas. The climatic development during the past 8000 years on western Ymer phi was characterized by an early Holocene temperature optimum and a subsequent cooling that culminated during the Little Ice Age. The long-term temperature changes, however, had relatively little effect on size variations of a local ice cap that persisted throughout the Holocene on northwestern Ymer phi. Oscillations reconstructed for this ice cap are due to changes in precipitation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.