A Quantitative Holocene Climatic Record from Diatoms in Northern Fennoscandia

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atte Korhola ◽  
Jan Weckström ◽  
Lasse Holmström ◽  
Panu Erästö
Keyword(s):  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Calibration Model ◽  
Subarctic Lakes ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Climatic Record ◽  
Climate Events

A diatom-based calibration model for predicting summer temperatures was developed using climatically sensitive subarctic lakes in northern Fennoscandia. The model was applied to a sediment core from a treeline lake to infer trends in Holocene climate. The record exhibits long-term variations, as well as a series of shorter-term fluctuations on a time scale of centuries. Summers were warmest in the area about 6200 cal yr B.P. and featured distinct cooling episodes around 8300, 7200, 4200, 3000, and 400 cal yr B.P., most of these coinciding with some known climate events (e.g., the 8200 cal yr B.P. event and the Little Ice Age). The similarity of the observed shifts with the pacings of climate events from marine and ice-core records represents evidence for coupled ocean–atmosphere forcing of the regional climate.

scholarly journals Content analysis for <i>Agricultural Records</i> of the United Kingdom, AD 200 to 1977: a study of frequency in human records concerning climate phenomenon

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 2555-2577
Author(s):  
D. H. Holt
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Weather Phenomenon ◽  
Continuous Record ◽  
Frequency Occurrence ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Climate Events

Abstract. A content analysis has been completed on a text from the UK that has gathered agricultural and climate data from the years AD 220 to 1977 from 100s of sources. The content analysis coded all references to climate and agriculture to ascertain which climate events were recorded and which were not. This study addressed the question: is there bias in human records of climate? This evaluated the continuous record (AD 1654–1977), discontinous record (AD 220–1653), the whole record (AD 220–1977), the Little Climate Optimum (AD 850–1250) and the Little Ice Age (AD 1450–1880). This study shows that there is no significant variation in any of these periods in frequency occurrence of "good" or "bad" climate suggesting humans are not recording long-term changes in climate, but they are recording weather phenomenon as it occurs.

scholarly journals Temperature and mineral dust variability recorded in two low accumulation Alpine ice cores over the last millennium

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Bohleber ◽  
Tobias Erhardt ◽  
Nicole Spaulding ◽  
Helene Hoffmann ◽  
Hubertus Fischer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Mineral Dust ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Annual Layer ◽  
Instrumental Temperature

Abstract. Among ice core drilling sites in the European Alps, the Colle Gnifetti (CG) glacier saddle is the only one to offer climate records back to at least 1000 years. This unique long-term archive is the result of an exceptionally low net accumulation driven by wind erosion and rapid annual layer thinning. To-date, however, the full exploitation of the CG time series has been hampered by considerable dating uncertainties and the seasonal summer bias in snow preservation. Using a new core drilled in 2013 we extend annual layer counting, for the first time at CG, over the last 1000 years and add additional constraints to the resulting age scale from radiocarbon dating. Based on this improved age scale, and using a multi-core approach with a neighboring ice core, we explore the potential for reconstructing long-term temperature variability from the stable water isotope and mineral dust proxy time series. A high and potentially non-stationary isotope/temperature sensitivity limits the quantitative use of the stable isotope variability thus far. However, we find substantial agreement comparing the mineral dust proxy Ca2+ with instrumental temperature. The temperature-related variability in the Ca2+ record is explained based on the temperature-dependent snow preservation bias combined with the advection of dust-rich air masses coinciding with warm temperatures. We show that using the Ca2+ trends for a quantitative temperature reconstruction results in good agreement with instrumental temperature and the latest summer temperature reconstruction derived from other archives covering the last 1000 years. This includes a Little Ice Age cold period as well as a medieval climate anomaly. In particular, part of the medieval climate period around 1100–1200 AD stands out through an increased occurrence of dust events, potentially resulting from a relative increase in meridional flow and dry conditions over the Mediterranean.

scholarly journals The Elbrus (Caucasus, Russia) ice core glaciochemistry to reconstruct anthropogenic emissions in central Europe: The case of sulfate

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Preunkert ◽  
Michel Legrand ◽  
Stanislav Kutuzov ◽  
Patrick Ginot ◽  
Vladimir Mikhalenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
First Century ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Basal Ice ◽  
Common Era

Abstract. This study reports on the glaciochemistry of a deep ice core (182 m long) drilled in 2009 at Mount Elbrus (43°21′ N, 42°26′ E; 5115 m above sea level) in the Caucasus, Russia. Radiocarbon dating of the particulate organic carbon fraction in the ice suggests a basal ice age of ~ 1670 ± 400 cal yr BP. Based on chemical stratigraphy, the upper 168.6 m of the core were dated by counting annual layers. The seasonally resolved chemical records cover the years 1774–2009 (Common Era), thus, being useful to reconstruct many aspects of atmospheric pollution in central Europe from pre-industrial times to present-day. After having examined the extent to which the arrival of large dust plumes originating from Sahara and Middle East modifies the chemical composition of the Elbrus (ELB) snow and ice layers, we focus on the sulfur pollution. The ELB sulfate levels indicate a four- and six-fold increase from 1774–1900 to 1980–1995 in winter and summer, respectively. Remaining close to 116 ± 28 ppb during the nineteen century, the summer sulfate levels started to rise at a mean rate of ~ 6 ppb per year from 1920 to 1950. The summer sulfate increase accelerated between 1950 and 1975 (11 ppb per year), levels reaching a maximum between 1980 and 1990 (730 ± 152 ppb) and subsequently decreasing to 630 ± 130 ppb at the beginning of the twenty first century. Long-term sulfate trends observed in the ELB ice cores are compared with those previously obtained in Alpine ice, the most important difference consists in a more pronounced decrease of the sulfur pollution over the three last decades in western than central Europe.

scholarly journals Estimates of climatic influence on the carbon cycle

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Enting ◽  
Nathan Clisby
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Climate Feedback ◽  
Climate Fluctuations ◽  
Hemispheric Temperature ◽  
Pattern Of Variation ◽  
Single Number

Abstract. The influence of climatic change on the carbon cycle is important as part of a CO2-climate feedback loop. However the magnitude of the coupling depends on the timescales involved. We expand on previous analyses of the ice-core CO2 data from the pre-industrial period 1000–1750, extending the analysis into the 20th century. Our results emphasise the limitations of characterising the climate-to-CO2 influence by a single number γ. Even once a time-scale dependence is incorporated, the coldest part of the Little Ice Age seems to reflect different behaviour to that in earlier or later centuries. Different temperature reconstructions appear to capture distinct aspects of pre-industrial climate fluctuations that lacked global coherence. An exploratory study extends the analysis into the industrial period. In this study, most paleo-temperature data fail to fit the plateau (or plateaus) in 20th century ice-core CO2, with one particular reconstruction as an exception. One interpretation of this fit is that although the reconstruction does not closely reflect hemispheric temperature changes, it samples a pattern of variation where the terrestrial carbon exchange is anomalously sensitive to regional climate variations. These various results suggest that this type of empirical study may have limited applicability to the 21st century.

scholarly journals Higher-than-present Medieval pine (Pinus sylvestris) treeline along the Swedish Scandes

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Kullman
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Sylvestris ◽  
Ground Surface ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Lapse Rate ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Climate Change And Variability ◽  
The Past ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia ◽  
Detection And Attribution ◽  
Summer Temperatures

The upper treeline of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is renowned as a sensitive indicator of climate change and variability. By use of megafossil tree remains, preserved exposed on the ground surface, treeline shift over the past millennium was investigated at multiple sites along the Scandes in northern Sweden. Difference in thermal level between the present and the Medieval period, about AD 1000-1200, is a central, although controversial, aspect concerning the detection and attribution of anthropogenic climate warming. Radiocarbon-dated megafossil pines revealed that the treeline was consistently positioned as much as 115 m higher during the Medieval period than today (AD 2000-2010), after a century of warming and substantial treeline upshift. Drawing on the last-mentioned figure, and a lapse rate of 0.6oC/100 m, it may be inferred that Medieval summer temperatures were about 0.7 oC warmer than much of the past 100 years. Extensive pine mortality and treeline descent after the Medieval warming peak reflect substantially depressed temperatures during the Little Ice Age. Warmer-than-present conditions during the Medieval period concur with temperature reconstructions from different parts of northern Fennoscandia, northwestern Russia and Greenland. Modern warming has not been sufficient to restore Medieval treelines. Against this background, there is little reason to view further modest warming as unnatural.

scholarly journals A Northern Hemisphere Volcanic Chemistry Record (1869–1984) and Climatic Implications Using a South Greenland Ice Core

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.B. Lyons ◽  
P.A. Mayewski ◽  
M.J. Spencer ◽  
M.S. Twickler ◽  
T.E. Graedel
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Chemical Signatures ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Major Chemical

The effect of volcanic emission of acidic aerosols on climate is well documented. The presence of acid droplets in the stratosphere can reduce transmissivity and hence decrease surface temperatures. Since the amount and chemical composition of erupted material has important effects on regional climate, knowledge of past volcanic events is of extreme importance. Detailed glaciochemical records provide the only milieu wherein the geochemistry of paleovolcanic events can be fully documented. We present a detailed sulfate and chloride record from an ice core drilled at site 20 D, 40 km SW of Dye 3 in southern Greenland. The record spans the time period 1869–1984 with chemical analyses of approximately eight samples per year. Time series decomposition and locally weighted scatter plot smoothing techniques were used to extract long term trends from the data so that individual volcanic eruptions could be documented. A number of events identified here have been unnoticed previously and a high percentage of the major chemical signatures documenting these events is associated with large decreases in temperature in the latitudinal zone 60–90 °N. Many authors have pointed out that the amount of volcanic acids such as HCl and H2SO4 injected into the atmosphere has a very important influence on global climate, yet this volcanic input has been difficult to quantify prior to ∼1960. Our data help to alleviate this problem. These individual events can be compared to available frost tree ring data from North America, further establishing a volcanism-climatic linkage.

scholarly journals A Northern Hemisphere Volcanic Chemistry Record (1869–1984) and Climatic Implications Using a South Greenland Ice Core

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.B. Lyons ◽  
P.A. Mayewski ◽  
M.J. Spencer ◽  
M.S. Twickler ◽  
T.E. Graedel
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Chemical Signatures ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Major Chemical

The effect of volcanic emission of acidic aerosols on climate is well documented. The presence of acid droplets in the stratosphere can reduce transmissivity and hence decrease surface temperatures. Since the amount and chemical composition of erupted material has important effects on regional climate, knowledge of past volcanic events is of extreme importance. Detailed glaciochemical records provide the only milieu wherein the geochemistry of paleovolcanic events can be fully documented. We present a detailed sulfate and chloride record from an ice core drilled at site 20 D, 40 km SW of Dye 3 in southern Greenland. The record spans the time period 1869–1984 with chemical analyses of approximately eight samples per year. Time series decomposition and locally weighted scatter plot smoothing techniques were used to extract long term trends from the data so that individual volcanic eruptions could be documented. A number of events identified here have been unnoticed previously and a high percentage of the major chemical signatures documenting these events is associated with large decreases in temperature in the latitudinal zone 60–90 °N. Many authors have pointed out that the amount of volcanic acids such as HCl and H2SO4injected into the atmosphere has a very important influence on global climate, yet this volcanic input has been difficult to quantify prior to ∼1960. Our data help to alleviate this problem. These individual events can be compared to available frost tree ring data from North America, further establishing a volcanism-climatic linkage.

scholarly journals 1200 years of warm-season temperature variability in central Fennoscandia inferred from tree-ring density

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 489-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Zhang ◽  
H. W. Linderholm ◽  
B. E. Gunnarson ◽  
J. Björklund ◽  
D. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Systematic Bias ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia ◽  
Cooling Trend

Abstract. An improved and extended Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots Pine) tree-ring maximum density (MXD) chronology from the central Scandinavian Mountains was used to reconstruct warm-season (April–September) temperature back to 850 CE. Due to systematic bias from differences in elevation (or local environment) of the samples through time, the data was "mean adjusted''. The new reconstruction, called C-Scan, was based on the RSFi standardisation method to preserve mid- and long-term climate variability. C-Scan, explaining more than 50% of the warm-season temperature variance in a large area of Central Fennoscandia, agrees with the general profile of Northern Hemisphere temperature evolution during the last 12 centuries, supporting the occurrences of a Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) around 1009–1108 CE and a Little Ice Age (LIA) ca 1550–1900 CE in Central Fennoscandia. C-scan suggests a later onset of LIA and a larger cooling trend during 1000–1900 CE than previous MXD based reconstructions from Northern Fennoscandia. Moreover, during the last 1200 years, the coldest period was found in the late 17th–19th centuries with the coldest decades being centered on 1600 CE, and the warmest 100 years occurring in the most recent century.

scholarly journals Mercury in Hair of Mammoth and Other Prehistorical Mammals as a Proxy of Hg Level in the Environment Associated with Climate Changes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (23) ◽  
pp. 8664
Author(s):  
Stella Eyrikh ◽  
Gennady Boeskorov ◽  
Tatyana Serykh ◽  
Marina Shchelchkova ◽  
Tatyana Papina
Keyword(s):  
Climate Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
First Results ◽  
Thawing Permafrost ◽  
Steppe Bison ◽  
Dust Load

The paper presents the first results of Hg determination in the hair of prehistorical animals (woolly mammoth, steppe bison, and woolly rhino). Hair of prehistorical mammals can be used as an archive that preserves changes of environmental pollution at the paleoscale. The aim of our study was to assess the levels of Hg exposure of ancient animals and to understand whether Hg concentration in hair could be used as a proxy indicating changes of mercury levels in the environment following global climate changes. We assessed changes of Hg exposure recorded in hairs of seven specimens of mammoth fauna mammals that inhabited the Yakutia region in the period from 45 to 10 ka yr BP. Hg concentrations in hair varied from 0.017 to 0.177 µg/g; the lowest Hg concentration were determined in older specimens (45–33 kyr yr BP). The two highest concentrations belonged sample from the Last Glacial Maximum and the Karginian interstadial (57–24 kyr BP) periods. Our hypothesis is the increase of Hg concentrations in hair reflecting environmental Hg level might be forced by high dust load in cold periods and thawing permafrost in warm climatic periods. Long-term variations of Hg level recovered from Ice Age animals’ hair correlate with Hg profiles of concentration and deposition reconstructed from the Antarctica ice core.

scholarly journals Climate-induced changes in carbon flows across the plant-consumer interface in a small subarctic lake

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Belle ◽  
Jenny L. Nilsson ◽  
Ilmar Tõnno ◽  
Rene Freiberg ◽  
Tobias Vrede ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Isotopic Composition ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Benthic Algae ◽  
Zooplankton Biomass ◽  
Subarctic Lakes ◽  
Stable Isotopic Composition ◽  
Carbon Transfer ◽  
Stable Isotopic ◽  
Subarctic Lake

AbstractReconstructions of past food web dynamics are necessary for better understanding long-term impacts of climate change on subarctic lakes. We studied elemental and stable isotopic composition of sedimentary organic matter, photosynthetic pigments and carbon stable isotopic composition of Daphnia (Cladocera; Crustacea) resting eggs (δ13CClado) in a sediment record from a small subarctic lake. We examined how regional climate and landscape changes over the last 5800 years affected the relative importance of allochthonous and autochthonous carbon transfer to zooplankton. Overall, δ13CClado values were well in line with the range of theoretical values of aquatic primary producers, confirming that zooplankton consumers in subarctic lakes, even in the long-term perspective, are mainly fuelled by autochthonous primary production. Results also revealed greater incorporations of benthic algae into zooplankton biomass in periods that had a warmer and drier climate and clearer water, whereas a colder and wetter climate and lower water transparency induced higher contributions of planktonic algae to Daphnia biomass. This study thus emphasizes long-term influence of terrestrial-aquatic linkages and in-lake processes on the functioning of subarctic lake food webs.

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