The last ice-sheet advance and retreat across the Antarctic continental shelf: Synchrony or diachrony?

Over the last few decades, numerous studies from various sectors of the Antarctic continental shelf have reconstructed the spatial extent of grounded ice-sheet advance during the last glacial period and the timing of its retreat. Most reconstructions were based on the bathymetric mapping of subglacial bedforms on the seabed and the palaeoenvironmental interpretation and dating of sub-seafloor sediments in cores. In addition, surface exposure age dating on rocks from the hinterland using cosmogenic isotopes and ice-sheet models were used to constrain the last ice-sheet advance and retreat. Different regional reconstructions provided consistent results for several study areas. In contrast, recent circum-Antarctic reviews that compiled the spatial and temporal information about maximum ice-sheet advance and retreat from these regional studies came to conflicting conclusions regarding i) the maximum extent of grounded ice, and ii) the synchronous/diachronous behaviour of the northern and southern hemispheric ice sheets and the individual drainage sectors within the Antarctic Ice Sheet, respectively. Resolving these conflicts is essential for identifying the main drivers of Antarctic ice-sheet retreat, evaluating the contribution of Antarctic ice-sheet melting to global sea-level rise over the last ~20 ka, understanding the dynamics of individual drainage sectors within the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and locating possible glacial refuges for benthic organisms on the Antarctic shelf. Here we will present examples of circum-Antarctic reconstructions and discuss possible reasons for conflicting conclusions. In some cases, apparent discrepancies can simply be explained by the ambiguity of terms such as "Last Glacial Maximum", which can refer either to a particular time slice (e.g. 23-19 ka BP) or to the time when grounded ice reached its last maximum extent in a particular sector of the Antarctic continental shelf, and "deglaciation", which can refer either to the time of grounding-line retreat from a marine sediment core site or to the onset of (seasonal) open-marine conditions at this location. In other instances, specific weaknesses of the techniques applied to reconstruct ice-sheet advance and retreat are likely to be responsible for the apparently conflicting conclusions. These weaknesses include uncertainties in radiocarbon dating of Antarctic marine sediments, in reconstructions of ice-sheet dynamics on the continental shelf from changes in depositional patterns on the adjacent continental slope, and in palaeoenvironmental interpretations of sedimentary facies (i.e. subglacial vs. glaciomarine facies).