The Baltic Ice Stream, a large fast-flowing sector of the last Fennoscandian Ice Sheet that occupied the present-day Baltic Sea basin, was first conceptualized in the earliest days of glacial geological research in Scandinavia. Landform and sedimentological evidence from the terrestrial margins support the concept and numerical ice-sheet models demonstrate its existence and possible evolution. However, with evidence for the Baltic Ice Stream thus far limited to the terrestrial periphery, its true form, scale, function, and role in deglaciation have proven enigmatic. Here we present geomorphological evidence directly from the Baltic seabed that confirms the existence of and sheds light on the behaviour of the Baltic Ice Stream. Based on an extensive collection of high-, moderate- and low-resolution bathymetric terrain models covering a large proportion of the Baltic Sea floor, and complemented by LiDAR-data for the Baltic islands, we have identified and mapped >20 000 individual subglacial bedforms, meltwater landforms and grounding line landforms. We reconstruct a six-stage sequence of ice flow and retreat, finding that streaming was persistent in the Baltic but that pathways were variable in extent, timing and duration: different sectors of the Baltic exhibit asynchronous streaming and out-of-phase grounding line changes. During deglaciation, grounding line readvances occurred in both the southwestern and the northern Baltic Proper, and, while abundant iceberg ploughmarks attest to calving as a significant ice loss mechanism, lobate margins suggest supply to the Baltic catchment was consistently high. Our reconstruction is limited by a fragmentary geomorphic record. Here we put forward a first hypothesis for how the Baltic Ice Stream evolved, and hope it stimulates new geomorphic, stratigraphical and core data collection to extend the landform record, provide insights into subglacial and grounding line processes, and constrain the chronology for Baltic Ice Stream flow and retreat.

The Swedish Varve Chronology is an unparalleled tool for linking the deglacial history of Sweden with associated palaeo-environmental change at an annual time scale, and it forms part of Sweden's cultural heritage. A full deglacial chronology connected to the present day does not yet exist; a notable gap is in southeasternmost Sweden, where few varved records are successfully connected to reconstruct ice-margin retreat. Deglaciation in southern Sweden covers both the climate transition to the Bølling warm period (similar to 14.7 ka BP) and the ice-margin transition from a subaqueous to terrestrial terminus. To facilitate investigations into the links between ice-margin dynamics and abrupt climate change, we revisited the varve chronologies of southern Sweden. We digitized unpublished records, reanalysed existing varve thickness records, and obtained and analysed new varve series both on land and offshore. This combined approach has enabled us to refine and extend the existing south coast chronology east and 78 km northwards. Our new Skåne-Småland chronology records 725 years of deglaciation, in addition to a younger floating chronology in parts. This chronology suggests that the glacial-lake terminating Fennoscandian Ice Sheet in southern Sweden initially retreated northwards at similar to 110-160 m a(-1) slowing to 60-70 m a(-1) near the palaeo-shoreline. Between today's mainland and the (now) island of Öland the retreat rates increase three- to fivefold. Ice-margin retreat was initially oriented towards the north (as along the south coast), but later pivoted towards the northwest, signifying a landward retreat of terrestrial 'Swedish' ice that became divorced from the Baltic Sea ice-sheet catchment. Our new 725-year-long varve thickness series reveals repeated multidecadal scale episodes of increased sedimentation. These likely signify phases of enhanced ice-sheet melting that repeat and persist throughout the deglaciation of Skåne-Småland.

The global climate transition from the Lateglacial to the Early Holocene is dominated by a rapid warming trend driven by an increase in orbital summer insolation over high northern latitudes and related feedbacks. The warming trend was interrupted by several abrupt shifts between colder (stadial) and warmer (interstadial) climate states following instabilities of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in response to rapidly melting ice sheets. The sequence of abrupt shifts between extreme climate states had profound impacts on ecosystems which make it challenging to reliably quantify state variables like July temperatures within a non-analogue climate envelope. For Europe, there is increasing albeit inconclusive evidence for higher stadial summer temperatures than initially thought. Here we present a comprehensive floral compilation of plant macrofossils from lake sediment cores of 15 sites from S-Scandinavia covering the period similar to 15 to 11 ka BP. We find evidence for a continued presence of plant species indicating high July temperatures throughout the last deglaciation. The presence of hemiboreal plants in close vicinity to the southern margin of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet implies a strong thermal summer forcing for the rapid ice sheet melt. Consistent with some recent studies, we do not find evidence for a general stadial summer cooling, which indicates that other reasons than summer temperatures caused drastic setbacks in proxy signals possibly driven by extreme winter cooling and/or shorter warm seasons.

Many lakes undergo anthropogenically driven eutrophication and pollution leading to decreasedwater and sediment quality. These effects can enhance seasonally changing lake redox conditions that may concentrate potentially toxic elements. Here we report the results of a multi-method geochemical and sediment microfabric analysis applied to reconstruct the history of cultural eutrophication and pollution of the North and South Basins of Windermere, UK. Eutrophication developed from the mid-19th to the earliest 20th centuries. Enhanced lake productivity is indicated by increased sedimentary delta C-13, and increased pollution by a higher concentration of metals (Pb, Hg, and As) in the sediment, likely enhanced by incorporation and adsorption to settling diatom aggregates, preserved as sedimentary laminae. In the South Basin, increasing sediment delta N-15 values occur in step with Zn, Hg, and Cu, linking metal enrichment to isotopically heavy nitrate (N) from anthropogenic sources. From around 1930, decreases in Mn and Fe-rich laminae indicate reduced deep-water ventilation, whereas periods of sediment anoxia increased, being most severe in the deeper North Basin. Strongly reducing sediment conditions promoted Fe and Mn reduction and Pb-bearing barite formation, hitherto only described from toxic minewastes and contaminated soils. From 1980 there was an increase in indicators of bottomwater oxygenation, although not to before 1930. But in the South Basin, the continued impacts of sewage are indicated by elevated sediment delta N-15. Imaging and X-ray microanalysis using scanning electron microscopy has shown seasonal-scale redoxmineralisation of Mn, Fe, and Ba related to intermittent sediment anoxia. Elevated concentrations of these metals and As also occur in the surficial sediment and provide evidence for dynamic redox mobilisation of potentially toxic elements to the lake water. Concentrations of As (up to 80 ppm), exceed international Sediment Quality Standards. This process may become more prevalent in the future with climate change driving lengthened summer stratification.