Climate driven declines in terrestrial input over the middle and late Holocene of perched boreal lakes in northeast Ontario (Canada) and teleconnections to the North Atlantic

Abstract The landscape of northeast Ontario, Canada, is dominated by glacial and postglacial landforms including numerous boreal lakes that formed following the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) and Glacial Lake Ojibway. This study uses micro-X-Ray Fluorescence elemental analysis to examine changes in sediment cores from two boreal lakes from northeast Ontario with the goal of inferring changes in terrestrial inputs and redox status of these lakes over the middle to late Holocene. These headwater lakes were selected as they have small watersheds that minimizes the complexity of hydrological responses, and as they are relatively proximal (∼130 km distance between lakes) to allow the detection of regional signals related to changes in climate over the Holocene. Strong correlations between Si, K, Ca, and Ti in Hogback Lake and Green Lake cores suggest that these elements represent proxies of terrestrial input. Standardized composite trends of these elements were very similar between the two lakes and were combined to represent a regional signal, with the highest terrestrial inputs between ∼6000 and ∼4000 cal yr BP, that subsequently declined through the Holocene. These results suggest that regional patterns in terrestrial input are linked to changes in hydroclimate and likely increased terrestrial stability over the middle to late Holocene. These composite trends are compared to similar geochemical composite trends from Iceland suggesting climate teleconnections between northeast North America and the North Atlantic. Cool conditions in the North Atlantic result in increased soil erosion in Iceland and correspond to cool and dry conditions in boreal northeast Ontario with corresponding low inputs of terrestrial material, and vice versa, over multidecadal time scales over the middle to late Holocene.