Preboreal onset of cold-water coral growth beyond the Arctic Circle revealed by coupled radiocarbon and U-series dating and neodymium isotopes

Cold-water coral mounds of Lophelia pertusa are widespread across the Scandinavian shelf, which was completely ice-covered during the Last Glacial Maximum between 22 to 18 ka BP. Rapid deglacial meltdown of the Fennoscandian inland ice and the retreat of its ice-streams freed most of the shelf of ice by ∼15 ka BP. However, cold-water coral growth commenced only after the Pleistocene–Holocene transition at 11.65 ka BP, when modern-like climatic...