High‐Arctic climate conditions for the last 7000 years inferred from multi‐proxy analysis of the Bliss Lake record, North Greenland

Abstract

The Arctic is more vulnerable to climate change than are mid latitudes. Therefore, palaeolimnological studies from the High Arctic are important in providing insights into the dynamics of the climate system. Here we present a multi‐proxy study from one of the world's northernmost lakes: Bliss Lake, Peary Land, Greenland. The early Holocene (10 850–10 480 cal. a BP) is characterized by increased erosion and gradually more marine conditions. Full marine conditions developed from 10 480 cal. a BP until the lake was isolated at 7220 cal. a BP. From its marine isolation at 7220 cal. a BP Bliss Lake becomes a lacustrine environment. Evidence from geochemical proxies (δ13C and total organic carbon) suggests that warmer conditions prevailed between 7220 and 6500 cal. a BP, corresponding to the Holocene thermal maximum, and from 3300 until 910 cal. a BP. From 850 to 500 cal. a BP colder climate conditions persisted. The transition from warmer to colder climate conditions taking place around 850 cal. a BP may be associated with the transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes

“…In the present study, we examined the DNA record throughout a sediment core from the High Arctic Bliss Lake, which has previously been analyzed using sedimentological methods and classical diatom analyses (Olsen et al, 2012). This sediment core spans the Holocene of one of the northernmost lakes in the world, located in Peary Land in the far north of Greenland, on a coastal plain facing the Arctic Ocean (Fig.…”

“…Peary Land is the landmass closest to the North Pole, with currently extreme conditions and land-fast sea ice. Due to its remoteness, paleoecological investigations from this area, in particular of lacustrine sediment cores, are rare (Olsen et al, 2012). Continuous sedimentary records spanning the complete Holocene are uncommon in northern Greenland, because deglaciation, lake formation and the onset of sedimentation commonly fall within the early Holocene Larsen et al, 2010;M€ oller et al, 2010).…”

“…Continuous sedimentary records spanning the complete Holocene are uncommon in northern Greenland, because deglaciation, lake formation and the onset of sedimentation commonly fall within the early Holocene Larsen et al, 2010;M€ oller et al, 2010). The formation of Bliss Lake is assumed to be concurrent with the general deglaciation of North Greenland, at ca 11,000 cal yr BP M€ oller et al, 2010), and throughout the Holocene it experienced a series of distinct environmental shifts (Olsen et al, 2012). It started as a marine embayment with brackish conditions, caused by shelf-based ice off the coast of North Greenland and a high inflow of melt water (termed zone 1 by Olsen et al, 2012).…”

Model–data comparison and data assimilation of mid-Holocene Arctic sea ice concentration

“…In addition to the accuracy, uncertainties in reconstruction of past sea ice conditions may come from poor analogue situations or low counts making the statistics for reconstructions weaker. This is why Olsen et al (2012) indices of reliability have been proposed in order to assess the quality of reconstructions. In the present case, more than 95 % of reconstructions are labelled with high-quality indices (cf.…”

“…Indeed, several sea ice condition reconstructions based on driftwood deposits and on beach ridges show rare or absent multiyear sea ice in the MH as far north as the northern coasts of Greenland (Bennike, 2004;Möller et al, 2010;Funder et al, 2011) and Ellesmere Island (England et al, 2008), while these coastlines are presently permanently surrounded by pack ice . Note that according to (Olsen et al, 2012), northern Greenland displayed no strong signal in sea ice in the MH as compared to the whole Holocene, since this period was experiencing a shift in climate from warmer conditions associated with a reduced sea ice towards colder conditions and more prolonged winter ice cover. This MH shift is also recorded through the analysis of IP 25 in two sediment cores collected from the continental slope of West Spitsbergen.…”