Abstract We compare a new pollen record with pre‐existing plant‐wax isotope data from lacustrine sediments retrieved from Mt. Usborne, East Falkland. These records document variations in plant productivity, wind intensity, and moisture availability, to measure the influence of the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies (SHW) over the last 13,000 years. Long‐distance transported pollen (LDT) accumulation rates from South America record changes in SHW. Relatively wet conditions (i.e., from plant indicators, biomarker isotopes) and changes in productivity vary with LDT, suggesting that times of high productivity and wind intensity were associated with increased precipitation and/or fog. Together, we infer that these combined proxies record the effect of the SHW on the Falkland Islands. Combined, these data indicate that there were periods of increased SHW influence over the Falkland Islands from 11.8–10.5 ka BP (thousands of years before present) and 6.8–3.0 ka BP. In contrast, the interval 10.5–8.4 ka BP, characterized by dry, less windy conditions and lower productivity, may have been a time when the SHW were less influential at the site and were located away, likely south, from the islands. Our earth‐system model experiments show a coupling between relative humidity and temperature and suggest that displacement of the SHW to the south of the Falkland Islands results in warming and drying of the islands, similar to conditions today. However, our pollen data also show that the local plant community diversity on Mt. Usborne appears resilient to climate change, on the scale of Holocene‐variability.
Spoth‐Ascencao et al. (Fri,) studied this question.