Radiocarbon dates and their probability density distributions for moss samples killed by expanding ice caps on northern Baffin Island, NU, Canada, 2005-2019 ...

• Main Authors: Pendleton, Simon, Miller, Gifford
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: NSF Arctic Data Center 2023
• Subjects: Baffin Island; Radiocarbon; Glacier Elevation; Paleoclimate Reconstructions; Arctic; Canada; Baffin; glacier*; Ice cap
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2rn30884; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A2RN30884

Most extant small ice caps mantling low-relief Arctic Canada landscapes remained cold-based throughout the late Holocene, preserving in situ bryophytes killed as ice expanded across vegetated landscapes. As Arctic summers warmed after 1900 CE, ice caps receded, exposing entombed vegetation. The calibrated radiocarbon ages of dead moss collected near ice-cap margins (kill-dates) define when ice advanced across the site, killing the moss, and remained over the site until the year of their collection. Here we list 186 radiocarbon dates on ice-killed bryophytes, their locations and their annually resolved calibrated probability density functions (PDF) from 71 different ice caps across northern Baffin Island, NU, Canada. ...