An 11 000‐year record of driftwood delivery to the western Queen Elizabeth Islands, Arctic Canada

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: Nixon, F. Chantel, England, John H., Lajeunesse, Patrick, Hanson, Michelle A.
• Other Authors: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canada; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Greenland; Arctic Archipelago; Queen Elizabeth Islands; Sea ice; Melville Island
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bor.12165; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fbor.12165; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bor.12165

Fifty‐six new radiocarbon dates from driftwood (mainly Larix , Picea and Populus spp.) collected from the modern and raised shorelines of Melville and Eglinton islands (western Canadian High Arctic) are presented and compared to other driftwood collections from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago ( CAA ) and Greenland. By documenting the species (provenance) and spatio‐temporal distribution of driftwood at various sites across the Arctic, regional characterizations of former sea‐ice conditions and changes in Arctic Ocean circulation patterns may be deduced. The earliest postglacial invasion of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago by driftwood is recorded on central Melville Island at c. 11 cal. ka BP , suggesting that the modern circulation pattern of Arctic Ocean surface water southeast through the archipelago was established >1000 years earlier than previously proposed. Throughout most of the Holocene until c. 1.0 cal. ka BP , the rate of driftwood delivery to the western Arctic islands was low (~1 recorded stranding event per 200 years) and intermittent, with the longest break in the record occurring between c. 3.0 and 5.0 cal. ka BP . This 2000‐year hiatus is attributed to a period of colder temperatures causing severe sea‐ice conditions and effectively making the coasts of the western Arctic islands inaccessible. After c. 1.0 cal. ka BP , driftwood incursion increased to maximum Holocene levels (~1 recorded stranding event every 20 years). Driftwood identified to the genus level as Larix that was delivered at this time suggests that the Trans Polar Drift current was regularly in its most southwestern position, related to a dominantly positive Arctic Oscillation mode. The Little Ice Age appears to have had little impact on driftwood entry to the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago, indeed the general abundance in the latest Holocene may record infrequent landfast sea ice.