Complexity of the 8 ka climate event in Sweden recorded by varved lake sediments

Mineral magnetic and carbon analyses of a continuous varved lake sediment sequence in west-central Sweden (Lake Mötterudstjärnet) complement similar palaeoclimate proxies obtained from two varved lake sediment sequences in northern Sweden and one in central Finland. The varve chronology is supported by tephrochronology, palaeomagnetic secular variations and ¹⁴C AMS dating of terrestrial macrofossils. We apply a simple model in which the transport and deposition of catchment mineral matter reflect the amount of winter snow accumulation, spring snow-melt and stream discharge. Our data show that winter snow accumulation was generally enhanced in Sweden between 8100 and 7750 cal. yr BP. If dating errors are taken into account, the 350-year period of increased erosion is the geomorphic response to a multi-centennial scale climatic cooling that occurred some time between 8500 and 7500 cal. yr BP. The most significant erosion event in central Sweden was centred at 8050 cal. yr BP. It lasted 150 years (between 8100 and 7950 cal. yr BP) and is equivalent to the most extreme Holocene climate anomaly in the northern hemisphere, known as the 8 ka or 8200 cal. yr BP climate event. Our high-resolution paramagnetic susceptibility and ferrimagnetic grain-size parameters suggest that snowpack accumulation increased most significantly in northern Sweden between 7900 and 7750 cal. yr BP. We suggest that this north–south difference was a response to the re-establishment of moisture-laden westerly air masses, as meridional Atlantic overturning circulation was re-established at the beginning of the Holocene thermal maximum.