A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland
Paleoclimate reconstructions across Iceland provide a template for past changes in climate across the northern North Atlantic, a crucial region due to its position relative to the global northward heat transport system and its vulnerability to climate change. The roles of orbitally driven summer coo...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:309576e025b6402b84729cf2cf2df50a 2024-09-15T18:13:17+00:00 A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland N. Ardenghi D. J. Harning J. H. Raberg B. R. Holman T. Thordarson Á. Geirsdóttir G. H. Miller J. Sepúlveda 2024-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1087-2024 https://doaj.org/article/309576e025b6402b84729cf2cf2df50a EN eng Copernicus Publications https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/20/1087/2024/cp-20-1087-2024.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-20-1087-2024 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/309576e025b6402b84729cf2cf2df50a Climate of the Past, Vol 20, Pp 1087-1123 (2024) Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1087-2024 2024-08-05T17:49:27Z Paleoclimate reconstructions across Iceland provide a template for past changes in climate across the northern North Atlantic, a crucial region due to its position relative to the global northward heat transport system and its vulnerability to climate change. The roles of orbitally driven summer cooling, volcanism, and human impact as triggers of local environmental changes in the Holocene of Iceland remain debated. While there are indications that human impact may have reduced environmental resilience during late Holocene summer cooling, it is still difficult to resolve to what extent human and natural factors affected Iceland's late Holocene landscape instability. Here, we present a continuous Holocene fire record of northeastern Iceland from proxies archived in Stóra Viðarvatn sediment. We use pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pyroPAHs) to trace shifts in fire regimes, paired with continuous biomarker and bulk geochemical records of soil erosion, lake productivity, and human presence. The molecular composition of pyroPAHs and a wind pattern reconstruction indicate a naturally driven fire signal that is mostly regional. Generally low fire frequency during most of the Holocene significantly increased at 3 ka and again after 1.5 ka BP before known human settlement in Iceland. We propose that shifts in vegetation type caused by cooling summers over the past 3 kyr, in addition to changes in atmospheric circulation, such as shifts in North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) regime, led to increased aridity and biomass flammability. Our results show no evidence of faecal biomarkers associated with human activity during or after human colonisation in the 9th century CE. Instead, faecal biomarkers follow the pattern described by erosional proxies, pointing toward a negligible human presence and/or a diluted signal in the lake's catchment. However, low post-colonisation levels of pyroPAHs, in contrast to an increasing flux of erosional bulk proxies, suggest that farming and animal husbandry may have suppressed fire ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Climate of the Past 20 4 1087 1123 |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
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Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 N. Ardenghi D. J. Harning J. H. Raberg B. R. Holman T. Thordarson Á. Geirsdóttir G. H. Miller J. Sepúlveda A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland |
topic_facet |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
Paleoclimate reconstructions across Iceland provide a template for past changes in climate across the northern North Atlantic, a crucial region due to its position relative to the global northward heat transport system and its vulnerability to climate change. The roles of orbitally driven summer cooling, volcanism, and human impact as triggers of local environmental changes in the Holocene of Iceland remain debated. While there are indications that human impact may have reduced environmental resilience during late Holocene summer cooling, it is still difficult to resolve to what extent human and natural factors affected Iceland's late Holocene landscape instability. Here, we present a continuous Holocene fire record of northeastern Iceland from proxies archived in Stóra Viðarvatn sediment. We use pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pyroPAHs) to trace shifts in fire regimes, paired with continuous biomarker and bulk geochemical records of soil erosion, lake productivity, and human presence. The molecular composition of pyroPAHs and a wind pattern reconstruction indicate a naturally driven fire signal that is mostly regional. Generally low fire frequency during most of the Holocene significantly increased at 3 ka and again after 1.5 ka BP before known human settlement in Iceland. We propose that shifts in vegetation type caused by cooling summers over the past 3 kyr, in addition to changes in atmospheric circulation, such as shifts in North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) regime, led to increased aridity and biomass flammability. Our results show no evidence of faecal biomarkers associated with human activity during or after human colonisation in the 9th century CE. Instead, faecal biomarkers follow the pattern described by erosional proxies, pointing toward a negligible human presence and/or a diluted signal in the lake's catchment. However, low post-colonisation levels of pyroPAHs, in contrast to an increasing flux of erosional bulk proxies, suggest that farming and animal husbandry may have suppressed fire ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
N. Ardenghi D. J. Harning J. H. Raberg B. R. Holman T. Thordarson Á. Geirsdóttir G. H. Miller J. Sepúlveda |
author_facet |
N. Ardenghi D. J. Harning J. H. Raberg B. R. Holman T. Thordarson Á. Geirsdóttir G. H. Miller J. Sepúlveda |
author_sort |
N. Ardenghi |
title |
A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland |
title_short |
A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland |
title_full |
A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland |
title_fullStr |
A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern Iceland |
title_sort |
holocene history of climate, fire, landscape evolution, and human activity in northeastern iceland |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1087-2024 https://doaj.org/article/309576e025b6402b84729cf2cf2df50a |
genre |
Iceland North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
Iceland North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Vol 20, Pp 1087-1123 (2024) |
op_relation |
https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/20/1087/2024/cp-20-1087-2024.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-20-1087-2024 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/309576e025b6402b84729cf2cf2df50a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1087-2024 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
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20 |
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4 |
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1087 |
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1123 |
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