Holocene environmental change on Svalbard (HOLS)

The aim of this international umbrella project is to study the variation of environment and climate in Svalbard during the Holocene. At the moment no integrated temperature or precipitation record exists for the entire Holocene on Svalbard. We aim to reconstruct temperature and precipitation for the Holocene by using a combination of lake sediment records, proglacial lakes and glacial moraine records. By analysing proxies as chironomids, alkenones, macro fossils and DNA temperatures can be reconstructed. Proglacial lake sediments and glacial moraine records help to reconstruct former ELA of glaciers and can be used to reconstruct precipitation records in combination with available temperature records.