Paleoclimate Records from Lake Sediments in a Cape Dyer- Quvitu Transect, Eastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada

Gifford H. Miller    gmiller@colorado.edu (Principal Investigator current)
John T. Andrews (Co-Principal Investigator current)
                    
Abstract    

     Abstract  ATM-9503279  Miller, Gifford  University of Colorado  Title:
     Paleoclimate Records from Lake Sediment in a Cape Dyer-             Quvitu
     Transect, Eastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada    The sensitivity of the polar
     regions to increased greenhouse gases  is described by global circulation
     models.  Rapid changes in Arctic  boundary conditions that influence climate,
     such as vegetation type  (especially tundra vs boreal forest), extent and
     duration of sea  ice and seasonal snow cover, and continental ice thickness/ice
     berg  discharge may have had dramatic impacts outside the Arctic in the  past,
     and may have similar future impacts.  These impacts underlie  current interest
     in the role of the Arctic in the global climate  system.  A primary objective
     of the PALE Initiative (Paleoclimate  from Arctic Lakes and Estuaries) is to
     obtain and analyze a series  of lake sediment cores that span the circum-arctic
     region.  This  project focuses on the 0-20,000 yr time period, with
     opportunistic  sampling of older records and high-resolution younger records
     where  encountered.  Research will continue lake-coring research efforts,
     including the interpretation of pollen, diatom, sedimentological  and isotopic
     analyses.  Work also continues to develop additional  proxies for past climate
     utilizing the isotopic composition (C- and  O- isotopes) of aquatic
     macrofossils and specific classes of  dissolved organic matter preserved in
     lake sediments and changes in  diatom floral assemblages.