Influence of Climate Change on Sedimentation Processes of the Spitsbergen Archipelago in the Late Holocene (on the Example of the Little Ice Age and Modern Warming)

The results of long-term studies of the geochronology of sedimentation processes on the Spitsbergen archipelago are summarized and presented. The response of the sedimentary basin to climate change is demonstrated using climatic fluctuations of the last centuries as an example. The study covers various sedimentation basins of the Spitsbergen archipelago, including lake systems, fjords, bays, straits and the shelf zone of the Spitsbergen archipelago. It was found that variations in the granulometric composition of bottom sediments and sedimentation rates in the study area represent a direct response of sedimentogenesis to climatic fluctuations. The change in the sedimentation regime, which began after the Little Ice Age with lake and fjord basins, spread to the shelf zone of the archipelago by the first half of the 20th century, covering an area with a radius of at least 100 km from the sources of demolition. The studies revealed that in the estuarine zones and fjords up to 90% of the late Holocene bottom sediments were formed during periods of climatic optimums of the Subatlantic time, while for the shelf zone of the Spitsbergen archipelago this figure is about 75%.