This study documents changes in the sedimentary environment on the outer continental shelf off south‐west Spitsbergen during the last ∼14 000 cal a BP using sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical data from a sea‐bed sediment core. We use the sortable silt fraction to infer fluctuations of near‐bottom current speed and determine sediment provenance and sediment transport paths. For most of the record length, sediments were derived from distal sources by the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) and the East Spitsbergen Current (ESC). However, before ∼12 000 and after ∼1800 cal a BP sediments were also sourced from proximal sources in south‐west Spitsbergen. The slowest near‐bottom currents were recorded between 10 300 and 9700 cal a BP when an increase in water stratification occurred, probably due to the strengthening of the ESC and an associated reduction in the northward water and heat flux. Near‐bottom currents related to WSC activity were at their maximum between 9000 and 7500 cal a BP, i.e. during a period of elevated water temperature, probably resulting in maximum relative heat fluxes to the Arctic.

The palaeoceanographic evolution of the SW Svalbard shelf west of Hornsund over the last 14 000 years was reconstructed using benthic foraminiferal assemblages, stable oxygen and carbon isotopes, and grain‐size and ice‐rafted debris data. The results reveal the complexity of the feedbacks influencing the shelf environment: the inflow of Atlantic and Arctic waters (AW and ArW, respectively), and the influence of sea ice and tidewater glaciers. The inflow of subsurface AW onto the shelf gradually increased with the first major intrusion at the end of the Bølling‐Allerød. During the Younger Dryas, the shelf was affected by fresh water originating from sea ice and glacier discharge. Glaciomarine conditions prevailed until the earliest Holocene with the intense deliveries of icebergs and meltwater from retreating glaciers and the occasional penetration of AW onto the shelf. Other major intrusions of AW occurred before and after the Preboreal oscillation (early Holocene), which resulted in more dynamic and open‐water conditions. Between 10.5 and 9.7 cal. ka BP, the shelf environment transformed from glaciomarine to open marine conditions. Between c. 9.7 and 6.1 cal. ka BP the AW advection reached its maximum, resulting in a highly dynamic and productive environment. At c. 6.1 cal. ka BP, the inflow of AW onto the Svalbard shelf decreased due to the intensification of the Greenland Gyre and the subduction of AW under the sea‐ice‐bearing ArW. Bioproductivity decreased over the next c. 5500 years. During the Little Ice Age, bioproductivity increased due to favourable conditions in the marginal sea‐ice zone despite the effects of cooling. The renewed advection of AW after AD 1850 started the climate warming trend observed presently. Our findings show that δ18O can be used to reconstruct the dominances of different water‐masses and, with some caution, as a proxy for the presence of sea ice in frontal areas over the northwestern Eurasian shelves.

Mussels from Mytilus edulis complex were used as biomonitors of the trace metals Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn, and Cu at 17 sampling sites to assess the relative bioavailability of metals in coastal waters around the European continent. Because accumulated metal concentrations in a given area can differ temporally, data were corrected for the effect of season before large-scale spatial comparisons were made. The highest concentration of Fe was noted in the North Sea and of Mn in the Baltic. Increased tissue concentrations of Pb were recorded in the mussels from the Bay of Biscay and the Baltic Sea. Low concentrations of metals were determined in the mussels from the Mediterranean Sea and the Northern Baltic. Relatively low geographic variations of Cu and Zn indicate that mussels are able to partially regulate accumulated body concentrations, which means Cu and Zn are, to some extent, independent of environmental concentrations.