The nature and timing of deglaciation and landscape response to abrupt climate change

Glacier-fed drainage basins cover ~26% of global land surface populated by nearly one third of global population. Predicted increases in global temperatures means that understanding the potential patterns and rates of future glacier melt is a key concern. Critical information to understand rates of melt can be extracted from reconstructions of past ice masses with this project focusing on the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT; 19 - 8 kyr BP).

Reconstructions of the former British and Irish Ice Sheet have concentrated on the timing and rates of ice retreat from offshore maxima to the present-day coastline to understand deglaciation in marine terminating glaciers. However, the reconstructions have low precision (millennial scale) and do not deal with the timing of terrestrial ice retreat. Therefore, there is a need to extend our understanding of this deglaciation in both a spatial and temporal sense, particularly by developing human lifetime relevant (sub-centennial scale) reconstructions of ice retreat.

This project will aim to develop robust, precise and accurate chronologies of the deglaciation of Northern Britain during the LGIT using multiple chronological tools from 3 strategically located sites. It will assess the rate of landscape response to abrupt climate change by using sedimentary ancient DNA and XRF as high resolution palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental proxy data.