Sebastien Bertrand

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Geology

In recent decades, the land-ocean aquatic continuum, commonly defined as the interface, or transition zone, between terrestrial ecosystems and the open ocean, has undergone dramatic changes. On-going work has stressed the importance of treating Aquatic Critical Zones (ACZs) as a sensitive system needing intensive investigation. Here, we discuss fjo...

A comprehensive database of paleoclimate records is needed to place recent warming into the longer-term context of natural climate variability. We present a global compilation of quality-controlled, published, temperature-sensitive proxy records extending back 12,000 years through the Holocene. Data were compiled from 679 sites where time series co...

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) constitute a major threat in glacierized regions. Despite a recent increase in the size and number of glacial lakes worldwide, there is only limited evidence that climate change is affecting GLOF frequency. GLOFs are particularly common in the Baker River watershed (Patagonia, 47°S), where 21 GLOFs occurred betw...

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) constitute a major hazard in glacierized regions. They are particularly pronounced in the Baker River watershed (Chilean Patagonia, 48°S), where 23 events occurred between 2008 and 2020. Although GLOF deposits have previously been studied in lake settings, how modern GLOFs are recorded in fjord sediments remains...

Postglacial fluctuations of Southern Patagonian Icefield (SPI) glaciers are well constrained on the leeward side of the Andes, but they remain mostly unknown on the windward side of the icefield, where most glaciers are marine-terminating. Here, we reconstruct the postglacial fluctuations of the HPS19, Penguin, and Europa glaciers along the hyperhu...

Glacier meltwater supplies silicon (Si) and iron (Fe) sourced from weathered bedrock to downstream ecosystems. However, the extent to which these nutrients reach the ocean is regulated by the nature of the benthic cycling of dissolved Si and Fe within fjord systems, given the rapid deposition of reactive particulate fractions at fjord heads. Here,...

Basal ages obtained from proglacial lake sediments are often used to constrain deglaciation histories, based on the assumption that fine-grained stratigraphic records start forming immediately after glacier retreat. Here, we test this assumption by studying the onset of sedimentation in Calluqueo Lake, Chilean Patagonia, which progressively deglaci...

Event deposits in lake sediments provide invaluable chronicles of geodynamic and climatic natural hazards on multi-millennial timescales. Sediment archives are particularly useful for reconstructing high-impact, low-frequency events, which are rarely observed in instrumental or historical data. However, attributing a trigger mechanism to event depo...

The glacial history of Patagonia has been built from paleoclimate records found at the margin of the former Patagonian Ice-sheet. However, current deglaciation models of Patagonia still have spatio-temporal gaps to be filled. In this direction, the study of the submerged paleo-climate records at the Patagonian Fjord system and pro-glacial lakes cou...

Floods are among the most destructive natural hazards on Earth. In paleohydrology, sediments are generally considered as one of the best archives to extend flood records to pre‐historical timescales. Doing so requires being able to identify flood deposits from sediment archives and decipher between flood types. The latter is particularly important...

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are an increasing threat to Patagonian environments and communities. Here, we investigate the geomorphological and hydrological impacts of a historical GLOF from Chile's third largest river (Pascua River), which discharges at the head of Baker Fjord (48°S). To do so, historical maps and satellite imagery of the...

Our understanding of glacial isostatic rebound across Patagonia is highly limited, despite its importance to constrain past ice volume estimates and better comprehend relative sea-level variations. With this in mind, our research objective is to reconstruct the magnitude and rate of Late Glacial and Holocene glacial isostatic adjustment near the ce...

Fjord sediments are increasingly recognized as high-resolution archives of past hydrological and climate variability. Using them as such, however, requires a comprehensive understanding of the variables that affect their accumulation rates and properties. Here, we conduct a spatial and temporal study of sediment samples collected at the head of Mar...

Present-day circulation patterns in the southeastern Pacific Ocean are driven by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, directing subantarctic surface water into the Patagonian fjords since at least the early Holocene. In this way, bottom current patterns in the area are regulated by the regional climate, although the complex bathymetry of the fjords h...

Fjord sediments are increasingly used as high-resolution archives of climate and environmental change, including variations in glacier mass balance and terrestrial hydrology. To accurately interpret such sediment records, it is crucial to comprehend sediment transport processes and determine sediment provenance. With this in mind, our main objectiv...

Proglacial lakes are effective sediment traps but their impact on the reliability of downstream sediment records to reconstruct glacier variability remains unclear. Here, we investigate the sedimentary signature of the recent recession of Steffen Glacier (Chilean Patagonia, 47°S) in downstream fjord sediments, with a focus on identifying the trappi...

Glaciated environments have been highlighted as important sources of bioavailable nutrients, with inputs of glacial meltwater potentially influencing productivity in downstream ecosystems. However, it is currently unclear how riverine nutrient concentrations vary across a spectrum of glacial cover, making it challenging to accurately predict how te...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The ability to trace and quantify sediment provenance in northwestern Patagonia is increasingly needed to properly understand modern sediment erosion and transport processes in this rapidly changing environment, and to accurately interpret sediment records from adjacent basins in terms of climate and environmental change. Nonetheless, no study so f...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Chilean fjord sediments constitute high-resolution archives of climate and environmental change in the southern Andes. To interpret such records accurately, it is crucial to understand how sediment is transported and deposited within these basins. This issue is of particular importance in glaciofluvial Martínez Channel and Steffen Fjord (48°S), due...

This is the second version of a bathymetric map of the Baker-Martinez fjord system (Chile, 48°S) constructed from multiple datasets: multibeam echosounder data of Baker channel (Harada et al., 2008) and of Steffen fjord and Baker river delta (Vandekerkhove et al., in press), single beam echosounder data of Martinez channel (R/V Sur-Austral 2015/201...

The progress of science is tied to the standardization of measurements, instruments, and data. This is especially true in the Big Data age, where analyzing large data volumes critically hinges on the data being standardized. Accordingly, the lack of community-sanctioned data standards in paleoclimatology has largely precluded the benefits of Big Da...

Session “Glaciers, moraines and climate: Challenges of identifying, dating and extracting palaeoclimatic data from former glacier fluctuations”

Proglacial lakes are widely recognised in the glacio-sedimentological community to hold accurate and high resolution records of glacier variability. However, the modern literature on proglacial lake sedimentation contains conflicting interpretations about the exact signature of glacier mass balance variations in proglacial sediments. The goal of ou...

Grain size is one of the most fundamental properties of sediments. It is frequently used in paleoclimate, paleoceanographic, and paleoenvironmental research as a proxy for river discharge, current and wind strength, and to identify mass flow deposits. Measuring grain size is, however, time‐consuming and destructive. Given the strong influence of gr...

The Baker-Martínez fjord system (Chile, 48°S) is a transitional environment between the terrestrial ecosystems of Patagonia and the SE Pacific Ocean. This unique setting makes it an ideal system to evaluate land-ocean gradients in sediment composition and in a range of biogeochemical variables. Here, we studied the composition and organic geochemis...

According to paleoseismological studies, the last earthquake that ruptured the Main Frontal Thrust in western Nepal occurred in 1505 AD. No evidence of large earthquakes has been documented since, giving rise to the concept of a seismic gap in the central Himalaya. Here, we report on a new record of earthquake-triggered turbidites from Lake Rara, w...

Megaturbidites have been the focus of many paleoseismic and paleoenvironmental studies because they can provide evidence for catastrophic and/or hazardous events with potentially major environmental implications. During a recent research cruise in Baker Fjord, Chile (47°54'S-74°30'W), a megaturbidite was described between the Northern and Southern...

Most outlet glaciers of the Cordillera Darwin Icefield (CDI; Patagonia, 54°S) are currently transitioning from calving to land-based conditions. Whether this situation is unique to the modern climate or also occurred during the Holocene is entirely unknown. Here, we investigate the Holocene fluctuations of outlet glaciers from the northern flank of...

The map is available here in 3 different formats: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5285521.v3 We present a bathymetric map of the Baker-Martinez fjord complex (Chile, 48⁰S) constructed from multiple data sets: multibeam echosounder data of Baker channel (Harada et al., 2008) and of Steffen fjord and Baker river delta (Vandekerkhove & Bertrand,...

Due to its tectonic setting, the Andean Southern Volcanism Zone (SSVZ) is characterized by frequent volcanic activity. Chilean Patagonia lake sediments represent powerful archives of historical and past eruptions since the deglaciation. The lacustrine tephra record is investigated in 10 Holocene sedimentary cores collected in five lakes located alo...

Atmospheric mineral dust is intrinsically linked with climate. Although dust flux variability on glacial–interglacial timescales is well documented, Holocene dust records remain scarce. To fill this gap, we conducted elemental, isotopic and sedimentological analyses on a peat core from the Karukinka Natural Park in Tierra del Fuego. An 8000-year-ol...

Well-characterised tephra horizons deposited in various sedimentary environments provide a means of synchronising sedimentary archives. The use of tephra as a chronological tool is however still widely underutilised in southern Chile and Argentina. In this study we develop a postglacial tephrochronological model for the Chilean Lake District (ca. 3...

Dissolved silica (DSi) plays an important biogeochemical role in the fjords of northern Chilean Patagonia (44–48°S), where it drives high biogenic productivity and promotes carbon burial. It is generally believed that the DSi riverine input to lakes and coastal environments is controlled by a combination of factors including lithology, climate, top...

Even though Patagonia is ideally located to study climate of the southern mid-latitudes, many questions on the late Quaternary climate evolution remain unresolved. The timing of maximum glacier extent is still uncertain in vast areas, and the postglacial evolution of the Southern Westerly Wind Belt (SWWB) remains highly debated. Here, we study the...

Wepresent reconstructions of late Holocene changes in the source of organicmatter and siliceous export production in the Relocanví Fjord (41°S, 72°W),Northern Chilean Patagonia, based on organic carbon content, δ13Corg, N/ C ratio, diatomassemblages and biogenic silica contents fromthree sediment cores. The age models are based on a combination of...

We present reconstructions of late Holocene changes in the source of organic matter and siliceous export production in the Relocanví Fjord (41°S, 72°W), Northern Chilean Patagonia, based on organic carbon content, δ13Corg, N/C ratio, diatom assemblages and biogenic silica contents from three sediment cores. The age models are based on a combination...

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning of sediment cores allows the rapid acquisition of bulk geochemical data at high resolution. The XRF core scanner data, which are expressed as elemental counts or peak areas, are mainly related to elemental concentrations, but they are also influenced by a series of sediment physical properties that vary with depth,...

In this paper, we show the potential of combining multi-proxy analysis of lake sediments with catchment geomor-phology to better understand palaeoenvironmental changes. Previous studies have suggested that alpine lakes in N Sweden may be highly sensitive to variations in catchment erosion and precipitation, and that this sensitivity may influence e...

The climate of Chilean Patagonia is strongly influenced by the southern westerlies, which control the amount and latitudinal distribution of precipitation in the southern Andes. In austral summer, the Southern Westerly Wind Belt (SWWB) is restricted to the high latitudes. It expands northward in winter, which results in a strong precipitation seaso...

Tephras preserved in lake sediments are commonly used to synchronize sedimentary archives of climate and environmental change, and to correlate them with terrestrial environments. They also provide opportunities to reconstruct volcanic explosive activity, e.g., eruption frequency and tephra dispersal. Although sedimentary processes may affect the r...

The climate of Chilean Patagonia is strongly influenced by the southern westerlies, which control the amount and latitudinal distribution of precipitation in the southern Andes. In austral summer, the Southern Westerly Wind Belt (SWWB) is restricted to the high latitudes. It expands northward in winter, which results in a strong precipitation seaso...

Historical documents were analyzed to reconstruct the effect of human activities on the insular territories of Aysen from the XVI to XIX centuries. The results show that the impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment reached its peak during the second half of the XIX century, which was marked by a significant degradation of local ecosyst...

Patagonia is commonly seen as an exceptionally pristine area because of its wildlife and practically unpolluted waters. However, during the twentieth century the burning of natural forests was one of the most important human activities in Northern Chilean Patagonia. Some estimations indicate that three million hectares were burned during the first...

Present volcanic eruptions offer unique opportunities to study the dispersion and spatial variability of volcanic deposits. The objective of this work is to assess lateral variations of pyroclastic deposits from the June 2011 volcanic eruption of Puyehue-Cordon Caulle Volcanic Complex (PCCVC) by analyzing the sedimentology and geochemistry of tephr...

Little attention has been given to pre-anthropogenic signals recorded in peat bogs, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Yet they are important to 1/ better understand the different particle sources during the Holocene and 2/ to tackle the linkage between atmospheric dust loads and climate change and 3/ to better understand the impact of dust on...

Historical documents were analyzed to reconstruct the effect of human activities on the insular territories of Aysen from the XVI to XIX centuries. The results show that the impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment reached its peak during the second half of the XIX century, which was marked by a significant degradation of local ecosyst...

The offset between AMS radiocarbon ages obtained on bulk lake sediments and the true age of depo-sition was evaluated at four sites in Northern Chilean Patagonia. Our results show that the bulk radio-carbon ages are systematically older by 300 to 1100 years. In this region free of carbonate and carbonaceous rocks, we argue that this difference resu...

The offset between AMS radiocarbon ages obtained on bulk lake sediments and the true age of deposition was evaluated at four sites in Northern Chilean Patagonia. Our results show that the bulk radiocarbon ages are systematically older by 300 to 1100 years. In this region free of carbonate and carbonaceous rocks, we argue that this difference result...

Gualas Glacier is an outlet glacier of the Northern Patagonian Icefield, one of the largest temperate ice bodies on Earth. Golfo Elefantes, the depositional basin of Gualas Glacier, has a sedimentary record that spans, with some hiatuses, at least the last ~11.3±3.0 ka. During this period the gulf remained free of ice, as suggested by the absence o...

Glaciers are frequently used as indicators of climate change. However, the link between past glacier fluctuations and climate variability is still highly debated. Here, we investigate the mid- to late-Holocene fluctuations of Gualas Glacier, one of the northernmost outlet glaciers of the Northern Patagonian Icefield, using a multi-proxy sedimentolo...

The Patagonian fjords have a clear potential to provide high-resolution sedimentary and geochemical records of past climate and environmental change in the Southern Andes. To improve our ability to interpret these proxy records, we investigated the processes that control fjord sediment inorganic geochemistry through a geochemical, mineralogical and...

Glaciers are frequently used as indicators of climate change. However, the link between past glacier fluctuations and climate variability is still highly debated. Here, we investigate the mid- to late-Holocene fluctuations of Gualas Glacier, one of the northernmost outlet glaciers of the Northern Patagonian Icefield, using a multi-proxy sedimentolo...

The late Holocene activity of a restraining bend of the northern strand of the North Anatolian Fault in Izmit Bay was investigated by a sedimentological, geochemical, and paleoecological analysis of sediment cores from Hersek coastal lagoon, NW Turkey. The sediment cores show a succession of sedimentary sequences composed of three units separated b...

Gualas Glacier is an outlet glacier of the Northern Patagonian Icefield (NPI), one of the largest temperate ice bodies on Earth. NPI is nourished by moisture from the Pacific Ocean, which is transported by the southern hemisphere Westerlies and results in year-round precipitation. This system also creates a strong West to East gradient due to the r...

In this paper, we compare the elemental and isotopic (C, N, Pb) geochemistry of lake sediments from two contrasted environments in south-central Chile. The first lake, Laguna Chica de San Pedro (LCSP), is situated in the urbanised area of the Biobio Region (36 degrees S). The second lake, Lago Puyehue (40 degrees S), is located 400 km to the southe...

Since the last deglaciation, the mid-latitudes of the southern Hemisphere have undergone considerable environmental changes. In order to better understand the response of continental ecosystems to paleoclimate changes in southern South America, we investigated the sedimentary record of Puyehue Lake, located in the western piedmont of the Andes in S...

We investigate the sedimentary record of Lago Thompson, a small lake (area 1.1 km2, watershed ~8 km2) located at an elevation of 750 masl in Northern Chilean Patagonia (45.38 °S, 71.47°W). At Present, the climate conditions around the lake are relatively dry, with annual precipitation averaging 500 mm. The goal of this study is to evaluate the natu...

A 352 cm long sediment core from Hersek Lagoon (Gulf of İzmit) was investigated for its ostracod species composition in order to evaluate the potential of ostracods to detect tsunami deposits in coastal environments. The Gulf of İzmit is the eastern bay of the Marmara Sea which is tectonically controlled by the North Anatolian Fault. Ostracod shell...