The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic
High latitude freshwater ecosystems are sentinels of human activity and environmental change. The lakes and ponds that characterize Arctic landscapes have a low resilience to buffer variability in climate, especially with increasing global anthropogenic stressors in recent decades. Here, we show tha...
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ftgfzpotsdam:oai:gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de:item_5007873 2023-05-15T14:50:56+02:00 The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic Viehberg, F. Medeiros, A. Plessen, B. Wang, X. Muir, D. Pienitz, R. 2021 application/pdf https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873_1/component/file_5007944/5007873.pdf unknown info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/s41598-021-97631-7 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873_1/component/file_5007944/5007873.pdf info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Scientific Reports info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2021 ftgfzpotsdam https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97631-7 2022-09-14T05:57:54Z High latitude freshwater ecosystems are sentinels of human activity and environmental change. The lakes and ponds that characterize Arctic landscapes have a low resilience to buffer variability in climate, especially with increasing global anthropogenic stressors in recent decades. Here, we show that a small freshwater pond in proximity of the archaeological site “Native Point” on Southampton Island (Nunavut, Arctic Canada) is a highly sensitive environmental recorder. The sediment analyses allowed for pinpointing the first arrival of Sadlermiut culture at Native Point to ~ 1250 CE, followed by a dietary shift likely in response to the onset of cooling in the region ~ 1400 CE. The influence of the Sadlermiut on the environment persisted long after the last of their population perished in 1903. Presently, the pond remains a distorted ecosystem that has experienced fundamental shifts in the benthic invertebrate assemblages and accumulated anthropogenic metals in the sediment. Our multi-proxy paleolimnological investigation using geochemical and biological indicators emphasizes that direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts have long-term environmental implications on high latitude ecosystems. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Nunavut Southampton Island GFZpublic (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam) Arctic Nunavut Canada Southampton Island ENVELOPE(-84.501,-84.501,64.463,64.463) Native Point ENVELOPE(-82.516,-82.516,63.734,63.734) Scientific Reports 11 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
GFZpublic (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam) |
op_collection_id |
ftgfzpotsdam |
language |
unknown |
description |
High latitude freshwater ecosystems are sentinels of human activity and environmental change. The lakes and ponds that characterize Arctic landscapes have a low resilience to buffer variability in climate, especially with increasing global anthropogenic stressors in recent decades. Here, we show that a small freshwater pond in proximity of the archaeological site “Native Point” on Southampton Island (Nunavut, Arctic Canada) is a highly sensitive environmental recorder. The sediment analyses allowed for pinpointing the first arrival of Sadlermiut culture at Native Point to ~ 1250 CE, followed by a dietary shift likely in response to the onset of cooling in the region ~ 1400 CE. The influence of the Sadlermiut on the environment persisted long after the last of their population perished in 1903. Presently, the pond remains a distorted ecosystem that has experienced fundamental shifts in the benthic invertebrate assemblages and accumulated anthropogenic metals in the sediment. Our multi-proxy paleolimnological investigation using geochemical and biological indicators emphasizes that direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts have long-term environmental implications on high latitude ecosystems. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Viehberg, F. Medeiros, A. Plessen, B. Wang, X. Muir, D. Pienitz, R. |
spellingShingle |
Viehberg, F. Medeiros, A. Plessen, B. Wang, X. Muir, D. Pienitz, R. The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic |
author_facet |
Viehberg, F. Medeiros, A. Plessen, B. Wang, X. Muir, D. Pienitz, R. |
author_sort |
Viehberg, F. |
title |
The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic |
title_short |
The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic |
title_full |
The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic |
title_fullStr |
The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
The influence of a lost society, the Sadlermiut, on the environment in the Canadian Arctic |
title_sort |
influence of a lost society, the sadlermiut, on the environment in the canadian arctic |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873_1/component/file_5007944/5007873.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-84.501,-84.501,64.463,64.463) ENVELOPE(-82.516,-82.516,63.734,63.734) |
geographic |
Arctic Nunavut Canada Southampton Island Native Point |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Nunavut Canada Southampton Island Native Point |
genre |
Arctic Nunavut Southampton Island |
genre_facet |
Arctic Nunavut Southampton Island |
op_source |
Scientific Reports |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/s41598-021-97631-7 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5007873_1/component/file_5007944/5007873.pdf |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97631-7 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766321990886490112 |