Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae
The fast decline of Arctic sea ice is a leading indicator of ongoing global climate change and is receiving substantial public and scientific attention. Projections suggest that Arctic summer sea ice may virtually disappear within the course of the next 50 or even 30 yr with rapid Arctic warming. Ho...
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ftunivgeneve:oai:unige.ch:unige:163910 2023-05-15T14:41:56+02:00 Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae Hetzinger, Steffen Halfar, Jochen Zajacz, Zoltan Wisshak, Max 2019 https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:163910 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1130/G46507.1 unige:163910 https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:163910 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY ISSN: 0091-7613 Geology, Vol. 47, No 10 (2019) pp. 963-967 Text Article scientifique info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2019 ftunivgeneve https://doi.org/10.1130/G46507.1 2022-10-09T23:38:43Z The fast decline of Arctic sea ice is a leading indicator of ongoing global climate change and is receiving substantial public and scientific attention. Projections suggest that Arctic summer sea ice may virtually disappear within the course of the next 50 or even 30 yr with rapid Arctic warming. However, limited observational records and lack of annual-resolution marine sea-ice proxies hamper the assessment of long-term changes in sea ice, leading to large uncertainties in predictions of its future evolution under global warming. Here, we use long-lived encrusting coralline algae that strongly depend on light availability as a new in situ proxy to reconstruct past variability in the duration of seasonal sea-ice cover. Our data represent the northernmost annual-resolution marine sea-ice reconstruction to date, extending to the early 19th century off Svalbard. Algal records show that the decreasing trend in sea-ice cover in the high Arctic had already started at the beginning of the 20th century, earlier than previously reported from sea-ice reconstructions based on terrestrial archives. Our data further suggest that, although sea-ice extent varies on multidecadal time scales, the lowest sea-ice values within the past 200 yr occurred at the end of the 20th century. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Global warming Sea ice Svalbard Université de Genève: Archive ouverte UNIGE Arctic Svalbard Geology 47 10 963 967 |
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Open Polar |
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Université de Genève: Archive ouverte UNIGE |
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ftunivgeneve |
language |
English |
description |
The fast decline of Arctic sea ice is a leading indicator of ongoing global climate change and is receiving substantial public and scientific attention. Projections suggest that Arctic summer sea ice may virtually disappear within the course of the next 50 or even 30 yr with rapid Arctic warming. However, limited observational records and lack of annual-resolution marine sea-ice proxies hamper the assessment of long-term changes in sea ice, leading to large uncertainties in predictions of its future evolution under global warming. Here, we use long-lived encrusting coralline algae that strongly depend on light availability as a new in situ proxy to reconstruct past variability in the duration of seasonal sea-ice cover. Our data represent the northernmost annual-resolution marine sea-ice reconstruction to date, extending to the early 19th century off Svalbard. Algal records show that the decreasing trend in sea-ice cover in the high Arctic had already started at the beginning of the 20th century, earlier than previously reported from sea-ice reconstructions based on terrestrial archives. Our data further suggest that, although sea-ice extent varies on multidecadal time scales, the lowest sea-ice values within the past 200 yr occurred at the end of the 20th century. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hetzinger, Steffen Halfar, Jochen Zajacz, Zoltan Wisshak, Max |
spellingShingle |
Hetzinger, Steffen Halfar, Jochen Zajacz, Zoltan Wisshak, Max Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae |
author_facet |
Hetzinger, Steffen Halfar, Jochen Zajacz, Zoltan Wisshak, Max |
author_sort |
Hetzinger, Steffen |
title |
Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae |
title_short |
Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae |
title_full |
Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae |
title_fullStr |
Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae |
title_full_unstemmed |
Early start of 20th-century Arctic sea-ice decline recorded in Svalbard coralline algae |
title_sort |
early start of 20th-century arctic sea-ice decline recorded in svalbard coralline algae |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:163910 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Sea ice Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Sea ice Svalbard |
op_source |
ISSN: 0091-7613 Geology, Vol. 47, No 10 (2019) pp. 963-967 |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1130/G46507.1 unige:163910 https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:163910 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1130/G46507.1 |
container_title |
Geology |
container_volume |
47 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
963 |
op_container_end_page |
967 |
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1766313634603991040 |