The Holocene 11,1 (2001) pp. 117–120 Late-Holocene East Antarctic climate trends from ice-core and lake-sediment proxies Donna Roberts, 1 Tas D. van Ommen, 2 Andrew McMinn, 1 Vin Morgan 2 and Jason L. Roberts 3 ( 1 Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252–77, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001; 2 Antarctic CRC and Australian Antarctic Division, GPO Box 252–80, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001; 3 Antarctic CRC, GPO Box 252—80, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001) Received 14 February 2000; revised manuscript accepted 1 May 2000 Abstract: A high-resolution record of evaporation for the last 650 years was derived from the diatom-salinity signal preserved in a sediment core taken from Ace Lake, Vestfold Hills (68° 28'S, 78° 11'E), Antarctica. The seasonal oxygen isotope signal preserved in an ice core from Law Dome (66° 44'S, 112° 50'E), Antarctica, revealed a high-resolution summer temperature record for the same time period. The two proxies show highly correlated behaviour despite having significantly different climatic response mechanisms and a large geographic separation. The correlation observed between proxies based on such differing processes and analytical method- ologies provides not only a climate record for the past 650 years that is both robust and regionally representa- tive of coastal East Antarctica but also confirmation of the utility of reconstructions using these methods. Key words: palaeoclimate, lacustrine sediment, Law Dome, ice core,  18 O, oxygen isotopes, diatoms, salinity, late Holocene, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica. Introduction Direct measurements of climate parameters in Antarctica provide only a limited temporal and spatial perspective on climate change in this region. Determination of longer-term changes and trends requires the extraction and interpretation of proxy climate data. Fossil diatoms in lake-sediment cores have often been used to determine palaeoclimatic changes in arid and semi-arid regions (Fritz et al., 1991; Gasse et al., 1995; Laird et al., 1996; Roberts and McMinn, 1999; Roberts et al., 1999) and oxygen isotope ( 18 O) data from ice cores have long been used to provide proxy evidence of temperature change (Morgan and van Ommen, 1997; Dansgaard et al., 1973; Robin, 1977). In this study, data from these vastly different types of proxy sources have been combined to derive a regional summer-season climatology for coastal East Antarctica over the past 650 years. To date there are no Antarctic palaeoclimate series which offer the resolution, geographic cover- age and immunity from non-climatic influences provided by this synthesis.  Arnold 2001 0959-6836(00)HL452RR Core descriptions The sediment core palaeosalinity reconstruction presented here is based on a diatom-salinity transfer function (Roberts and McMinn, 1996; 1998) which has been applied to a 2 m sediment core collected from Ace Lake, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica (Roberts and McMinn, 1999) (Figure 1). The meromictic nature of Ace Lake precludes bioturbative destruction of sediment depo- sition making this lake particularly suitable for high-resolution analysis for climate change (McMinn, 1995). The top 13 cm of this core was used to develop a model (Roberts et al., 1999) link- ing the diatom-derived palaeosalinity of the lake to the palaeohy- drology of the lake basin (below 13 cm inferred salinities indicate disruption of the salinity-driven stratification, preventing appli- cation of the model). This model allows the salinity changes to be used to track climate-driven hydrological changes, in parti- cular, the balance between evaporation and precipitation, over the last 650 years. The ice-core  18 O record is from the Dome Summit South (DSS) ice core (Morgan et al., 1997) situated 4.7 km SSW of the