Degradation of the climate signal preserved in Svalbard ice. Have the high Svalbard ice fields reached a tipping point?

The whole Arctic regions are undergoing faster warming than the global average. The Svalbard archipelago is particularly sensitive to temperature increase due to the moderate altitude of the main ice fields and geographical position. Though the greater temperature increase has been observed during the winter periods, enhanced summer temperatures are extending in time and altitude the areas affected by melting. In 2012 2015, 2017 and 2019 four shallow cores were recovered from the top of the Holthedalfonna ice field (1100 m a.s.l.) to study the response of specific geochemical parameter to the rapid warming in the higher North Atlantic. The four shallow cores cover the period 2003-2018 and have been analysed for the oxygen stable isotope ratio (d18O). The climate signal obtained, merging the four shallow core, have been compared with the longer ice core record (124 m deep) collected in 2005 at the same location and extending back to the 17th century. In the four shallow cores we have measured an unexpected more negative d18O signal, starting from 2005/2006, compared to the long Holtedahlfonna ice core record although the Svalbard annual atmospheric temperature are increasing. Comparing the d18O shallow core record with Svalbard meteorological and ocean measurements, sea ice calculation, glacier mass balance, biological process and measurement as well model re-analysis conducted at the drilling site we discover that several parameter\phenomena changed in the periods between 2004 and 2006. This might be the first time that a climate shift and its effect of the environment and on the atmospheric process, has been determine in one Artic region: the Svalbard archipelago.