Reconstructing Middle and Late Holocene Paleoclimates of the Eastern Arctic and Greenland

• Main Author: Finkelstein, Sarah
• Other Authors: Friesen, Max, Mason, Owen
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Sea ice; Thule
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199766956.013.6

The eastern Arctic and Greenland are characterized by diverse paleoclimatic histories. A range of biological, geochemical, and geophysical indicators preserved in ice cores, lake, and ocean sediments, landscape features, or boreholes can be applied to reconstructing Holocene climates over the period of human occupation. Soon after humans arrived in the eastern Arctic around 4800 cal B.P., regional temperatures began to decline. While the proxy records show a strong regional signal, this period of Neoglacial cooling has considerable local variability related to degree of continentality, sea ice conditions and elevation. Much later, the effect of the Medieval Warm Period (AD 850-1360) on the Thule migration appears to have been overstated. Because of the considerable spatiotemporal variability in available paleoclimate reconstructions from the eastern Arctic, data from multiple sites must be integrated, and for archaeological applications, regional syntheses need to be considered alongside highly local reconstructions.