Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstruction from deep ground temperatures: a comparison with paleoclimate derived from the δ18O record in an ice core from the agassiz Ice Cap, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Taylor, Alan E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1991
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Arctic; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Agassiz Ice Cap; Arctic Archipelago; Ice cap; ice core; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002214300000722x; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S002214300000722X

Abstract Changes in ground-surface temperature for the past few hundred years have been derived from deep temperature profiles at three wells in the northeastern Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and compared with the climatic history derived from the oxygen-isotope ratio 18 O/ 16 O measured in an ice core from the Agassiz Ice Cap, about 180-260 km to the east. Analysis of the ground-temperature profiles suggests that surface temperatures in the area decreased after the Little Climatic Optimum about 1000 years ago until the Little Ice Age (LIA). About 100 years ago, ground-surface temperatures appear to have increased by 2-5K to reach today’s values, while air temperatures increased by 2-3K, according to the isotope record. Part of the larger ground-surface temperature change may be due to other paleoenvironmental effects, such as an increase in snow cover coincident with the end of the LIA. The δ 18 O climatic record was successful in predicting the general features of the ground-temperature profiles observed at two of the sites, but not the third. There is contemporary evidence that surface temperatures at the latter site may be substantially modified by other environmental factors such as snow cover.