Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum Paleoclimates of the Eastern Canadian Arctic Reconstructed from Biotic and Geochemical Proxies in Lake Sediments

Gifford H. Miller gmiller@colorado.edu  (Principal Investigator current)
Alexander P. Wolfe  (Co-Principal Investigator current)

Abstract    

     Abstract  ATM-9809795  Miller, Gifford H.  University of Colorado  Title:
     Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum Paleoclimates of the  Eastern Canadian Arctic
     Reconstructed from Biotic and Geochemical  Proxies in Lake Sediments    The
     Arctic includes many of the most sensitive feedbacks in the  climate system,
     especially those that may change substantially on  time scales of relevance to
     humans (duration of seasonal and  permanent sea ice and snow cover, position of
     treeline, permafrost  and associated gas hydrates, loci of oceanic deep water
     formation).   Sediments cores from Baffin Island lakes serve as records of
     paleoenvironmental change; these sites provide the first continuous terrestrial
     paleoenvironmental records through the Late Glacial  Maximum (LGM) from the
     Canadian Arctic or Greenland.  Recent  studies of Holocene lake sediments have
     also focussed on the  utility of this medium to evaluate lacustrine responses
     to Little  Ice Age (LIA) cooling, the best documented late Holocene climate 
     oscillation.  This award supports a study to evaluate regional 
     paleoenvironmental change during the LIA, and to place 20th-century warming in
     a larger context.  This study will focus on "glacial  age" terrestrial
     conditions in the Eastern Canadian Arctic, and the  impacts of known dramatic
     reorganizations of the climate system  (e.g. Heinrich or D/O events) on
     terrestrial ecosystems in the  Arctic.