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Abstract Accelerated Arctic warming and wetting has global impacts, as the region’s glaciers and ice caps respond to variations in temperature and precipitation, impacting global sea-level change. But as the observations needed to calibrate models are scarce, predictions cannot confirm if increases in snowfall can help offset melt. Here, we analyze two 14,000-year-long glacier-fed lake sediment records from the Svalbard archipelago to examine the response of a resilient ice cap (Åsgardfonna) to warmer-than-present Holocene Thermal Maximum conditions. End-Member Modelling allowed us to unmix the diluted grain size signal of rock flour – a widely used proxy for past glacier change, and surface runoff – an indicator of hydrological intensification. Our findings reveal that Åsgardfonna survived and may have advanced despite warmer conditions, possibly due to enhanced snowfall driven by sea-ice loss. This suggests that future increases in precipitation could moderate glacier retreat in similar settings.
Auer et al. (Tue,) studied this question.