Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice
Arctic environments may respond very sensitively to ongoing global change, as observed during the past decades for Arctic vegetation. Only little is known about the broad-scale impacts of early and mid 20th-century industrialization and climate change on remote Arctic environments. Palynological ana...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683619838039 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683619838039 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683619838039 |
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0959683619838039 2024-03-24T08:58:41+00:00 Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice Brugger, Sandra O Gobet, Erika Blunier, Thomas Morales-Molino, César Lotter, André F Fischer, Hubertus Schwikowski, Margit Tinner, Willy schweizerischer nationalfonds zur förderung der wissenschaftlichen forschung 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683619838039 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683619838039 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683619838039 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license The Holocene volume 29, issue 7, page 1189-1197 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change journal-article 2019 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683619838039 2024-02-26T16:06:03Z Arctic environments may respond very sensitively to ongoing global change, as observed during the past decades for Arctic vegetation. Only little is known about the broad-scale impacts of early and mid 20th-century industrialization and climate change on remote Arctic environments. Palynological analyses of Greenland ice cores may provide invaluable insights into the long-term vegetation, fire, and pollution dynamics in the Arctic region. We present the first palynological record from a Central Greenland ice core (Summit Eurocore ’89, 72°35’N, 37°38’W; the location of Greenland Ice Core Project GRIP) that provides novel high-resolution microfossil data on Arctic environments spanning AD 1730–1989. Our data suggest an expansion of birch woodlands after AD 1850 that was abruptly interrupted at the onset of the 20th century despite favorable climatic conditions. We therefore attribute this Betula woodland decline during the 20th century to anthropogenic activities such as sheep herding and wood collection in the sub-Arctic. First signs of coal burning activities around AD 1900 coincide with the onset of Arctic coal mining. The use of coal and fire activity increased steadily until AD 1989 resulting in microscopic-size pollution of the ice sheet. We conclude that human impact during the 20th century strongly affected (sub)-Arctic environments. Moreover, ecosystems have changed through the spread of adventive plant species (e.g. Ranunculus acris, Rumex) and the destruction of sparse native woodlands. We show for the first time that optical palynology allows paleoecological reconstructions in extremely remote sites >500 km from potential sources, if adequate methods are used. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland Ice core Project Greenland ice cores GRIP ice core Ice Sheet SAGE Publications Arctic Greenland The Holocene 29 7 1189 1197 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
SAGE Publications |
op_collection_id |
crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
spellingShingle |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change Brugger, Sandra O Gobet, Erika Blunier, Thomas Morales-Molino, César Lotter, André F Fischer, Hubertus Schwikowski, Margit Tinner, Willy Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice |
topic_facet |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
description |
Arctic environments may respond very sensitively to ongoing global change, as observed during the past decades for Arctic vegetation. Only little is known about the broad-scale impacts of early and mid 20th-century industrialization and climate change on remote Arctic environments. Palynological analyses of Greenland ice cores may provide invaluable insights into the long-term vegetation, fire, and pollution dynamics in the Arctic region. We present the first palynological record from a Central Greenland ice core (Summit Eurocore ’89, 72°35’N, 37°38’W; the location of Greenland Ice Core Project GRIP) that provides novel high-resolution microfossil data on Arctic environments spanning AD 1730–1989. Our data suggest an expansion of birch woodlands after AD 1850 that was abruptly interrupted at the onset of the 20th century despite favorable climatic conditions. We therefore attribute this Betula woodland decline during the 20th century to anthropogenic activities such as sheep herding and wood collection in the sub-Arctic. First signs of coal burning activities around AD 1900 coincide with the onset of Arctic coal mining. The use of coal and fire activity increased steadily until AD 1989 resulting in microscopic-size pollution of the ice sheet. We conclude that human impact during the 20th century strongly affected (sub)-Arctic environments. Moreover, ecosystems have changed through the spread of adventive plant species (e.g. Ranunculus acris, Rumex) and the destruction of sparse native woodlands. We show for the first time that optical palynology allows paleoecological reconstructions in extremely remote sites >500 km from potential sources, if adequate methods are used. |
author2 |
schweizerischer nationalfonds zur förderung der wissenschaftlichen forschung |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Brugger, Sandra O Gobet, Erika Blunier, Thomas Morales-Molino, César Lotter, André F Fischer, Hubertus Schwikowski, Margit Tinner, Willy |
author_facet |
Brugger, Sandra O Gobet, Erika Blunier, Thomas Morales-Molino, César Lotter, André F Fischer, Hubertus Schwikowski, Margit Tinner, Willy |
author_sort |
Brugger, Sandra O |
title |
Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice |
title_short |
Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice |
title_full |
Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice |
title_fullStr |
Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice |
title_full_unstemmed |
Palynological insights into global change impacts on Arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in Central Greenland ice |
title_sort |
palynological insights into global change impacts on arctic vegetation, fire, and pollution recorded in central greenland ice |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683619838039 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683619838039 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683619838039 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland Ice core Project Greenland ice cores GRIP ice core Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland Ice core Project Greenland ice cores GRIP ice core Ice Sheet |
op_source |
The Holocene volume 29, issue 7, page 1189-1197 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683619838039 |
container_title |
The Holocene |
container_volume |
29 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
1189 |
op_container_end_page |
1197 |
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1794398274994569216 |