Pronounced summer warming in northwest Greenland during the Holocene and Last Interglacial

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: McFarlin, Jamie M., Axford, Yarrow, Osburn, Magdalena R., Kelly, Meredith A., Osterberg, Erich C., Farnsworth, Lauren B.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2018
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6016770/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29866819; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1720420115

Reconstructions of climate over Greenland during past warm periods provide crucial insights into the likely response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to future warming. However, limited preservation of interglacial archives due to extensive glacial scouring has hindered paleoclimate reconstructions along Greenland’s margins. Here, we report a Greenland lake sediment record that preserves both the present and previous interglacial periods. This record, combined with prior studies, demonstrates exceptionally strong warming over the northern Greenland Ice Sheet. Pronounced summer warming in this region helps explain ice sheet changes in the Early Holocene, while highlighting seemingly incongruous evidence for ice sheet extent and temperatures during the Last Interglacial. These findings may portend large future warming in this high-latitude region.