Refractory black carbon (rBC) is an important climate-forcing agent emitted by biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion. Antarctica can receive rBC aerosols emitted in Southern Hemisphere (SH) and preserve the history of emissions and atmospheric transport. Here, we present a high-resolution record of rBC in an ice core (CA2016-75) acquired from the coastal Eastern Antarctica, which accumulated during the past 100 years (1915-2015). The rBC concentration (0.030 ng g(-1)) and flux (7.22 mu g m(-2) yr(-1)) are both among the lowest values in Antarctic snow and ice. The rBC concentration reaches higher values on average in the period aligned with the austral Winter. The rBC concentrations show a long-term descending trend during the period between 1950s and mid-1990s, followed by an ascending trend to 2015. Back trajectory analysis indicates that the emissions resulting from the biomass burning and anthropogenic biofuel consumption in Southern America and Australia were the main sources for the rBC deposition. Wavelet spectral analysis and temporal correlation analysis on rBC deposition and the atmospheric circulation indices (El Nino-Southern Oscillation, Southern Annular Mode and Antarctic Oscillation) confirmed that the atmospheric circulations have certain influences on the rBC deposition, likely by their direct effects on rBC transport and on weather conditions driving the occurrence of fires and subsequent emissions in source regions.

Heterogeneous Holocene climate evolutions in the Northern Hemisphere high latitudes are primarily determined by orbital-scale insolation variations and melting ice sheets. Previous inter-model comparisons have revealed that multi-simulation consistencies vary spatially. We, therefore, compared multiple model results with proxy-based reconstructions in Fennoscandia, Greenland, north Canada, Alaska and Siberia. Our model-data comparisons reveal that data and models generally agree in Fennoscandia, Greenland and Canada, with the early-Holocene warming and subsequent gradual decrease to 0 ka BP (hereinafter referred as ka). In Fennoscandia, simulations and pollen data suggest a 2 degrees C warming by 8 ka, but this is less expressed in chironomid data. In Canada, a strong early-Holocene warming is suggested by both the simulations and pollen results. In Greenland, the magnitude of early-Holocene warming ranges from 6 degrees C in simulations to 8 degrees C in delta O-18-based temperatures. Simulated and reconstructed temperatures are mismatched in Alaska. Pollen data suggest strong early Holocene warming, while the simulations indicate constant Holocene cooling, and chironomid data show a stable trend. Meanwhile, a high frequency of Alaskan peatland initiation before 9 ka can reflect a either high temperature, high soil moisture or large seasonality. In high-latitude Siberia, although simulations and proxy data depict high Holocene temperatures, these signals are noisy owing to a large spread in the simulations and between pollen and chironomid results. On the whole, the Holocene climate evolutions in most regions (Fennoscandia, Greenland and Canada) are well established and understood, but important questions regarding the Holocene temperature trend and mechanisms remain for Alaska and Siberia. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.