The Allerød–Younger Dryas–Holocene sequence in the west-central Champlain Sea, eastern Ontario: a record of glacial, oceanographic, and climatic changes

Abstract

The aragonite mineralogy and geochemistry of the mollusc faunas preserved at Navan and Bearbrook, Ontario, serve as proxies of original seawater chemistry. The composite section spanning 12,980–10,980 cal yr BP includes the Younger Dryas (YD) paleoclimatic oscillation. Oxygen isotopes demonstrate the onset of cooling with the YD event, in addition to the lowering of marine values by the influx of isotopically light glacial meltwater from Lake Agassiz. Impact of cooling and dilution is reduced or eliminated with the start of the Holocene, when water temperatures and salinities for Champlain Sea (CS) seawater were 8–16 °C and 27–34 ppt, respectively. Overall, oxygen isotope values deceased to −3.5% during the YD mainly due to freshening by glacial meltwater. Carbon isotopes confirm the rise in atmospheric CO 2 concentration at the YD–Holocene transition. Marine strontium isotope values for the Allerød–YD–earliest Holocene range from 0.709151 (16,210 cal yr BP) to 0.709145 (12,980 cal yr BP) and 0.709142 (10,950 cal yr BP). The oceanographic changes recorded for the CS are in agreement with the evolutionary phases of Lake Agassiz and deglaciation dynamics of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The volume and direction of meltwater discharge from Lake Agassiz alternated between the Gulf of Mexico during the Allerød, via the Great Lakes through the CS to the North Atlantic during the YD, and back to the Gulf of Mexico during the early Holocene, but with diminished impact.