The Labrador Sea is important for the modern global thermohaline circulation system through the formation of Labrador Sea Water. However, the role of the southward flowing Labrador Current in Labrador Sea convection is still debated. In order to better assess its role in deep-water formation and climate variability, we present high-resolution mid- to late Holocene records of sea surface and bottom water temperatures, freshening, and sea ice cover on the Labrador Shelf during the last 6000 years.

Due to chronology uncertainties within paleoclimate archives, it is unclear how climate oscillations from different records relate to one another. By using radionuclides to synchronize Greenland ice cores and a German lake record over 11 000 years, we show that two oscillations observed in these records were not synchronous but terminated and began with the onset of a grand solar minimum. Both this and changes in ocean circulation could have played a role in the two climate oscillations.

The manuscript identifies the main volcanic phases in the Laguna del Maule volcanic field and their impact in the lake basin through the late glacial and Holocene. We show that the bio-productivity and geochemical variabilities in the lake are related with climatic dynamics type ENSO, SPA and SWW and that the main phases are synchronous with the major regional climate changes on millennial timescales.