A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard

The Arctic region is subject to a great amplitude of climate variability and is currently undergoing large-scale changes due in part to anthropogenic global warming. Accurate projections of future change depend on anticipating the response of the Arctic climate system to forcing, and understanding h...

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Main Authors: D'Andrea, William J, Bradley, Raymond S, Vaillencourt, David, Balascio, Nicholas L, Werner, Al, Roof, Steve, Retelle, Michael J
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: SelectedWorks 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:https://works.bepress.com/raymond_bradley/80
https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=raymond_bradley
id ftunivmassamh:oai:works.bepress.com:raymond_bradley-1159
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spelling ftunivmassamh:oai:works.bepress.com:raymond_bradley-1159 2023-05-15T14:48:20+02:00 A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard D'Andrea, William J Bradley, Raymond S Vaillencourt, David Balascio, Nicholas L Werner, Al Roof, Steve Retelle, Michael J 2012-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://works.bepress.com/raymond_bradley/80 https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=raymond_bradley unknown SelectedWorks https://works.bepress.com/raymond_bradley/80 https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=raymond_bradley Raymond S Bradley Little Ice Age lake sediments Svalbard biogeochemistry Climate Sedimentology text 2012 ftunivmassamh 2022-01-09T20:35:11Z The Arctic region is subject to a great amplitude of climate variability and is currently undergoing large-scale changes due in part to anthropogenic global warming. Accurate projections of future change depend on anticipating the response of the Arctic climate system to forcing, and understanding how the response to human forcing will interact with natural climate variations. The Svalbard Archipelago occupies an important location for studying patterns and causes of Arctic climate variability; however, available paleoclimate records from Svalbard are of restricted use due to limitations of existing climate proxies. Here we present a sub-decadal- to multidecadal-scale record of summer temperature for the past 1800 yr from lake sediments of Kongressvatnet on West Spitsbergen, Svalbard, based on the fi rst instrumental calibration of the alkenone paleothermometer. The age model for the High Arctic lake sediments is based on 210Pb, plutonium activity, and the first application of tephrochronology to lake sediments in this region. We fi nd that the summer warmth of the past 50 yr recorded in both the instrumental and alkenone records was unmatched in West Spitsbergen in the course of the past 1800 yr, including during the Medieval Climate Anomaly, and that summers during the Little Ice Age (LIA) of the 18th and 19th centuries on Svalbard were not particularly cold, even though glaciers occupied their maximum Holocene extent. Our results suggest that increased wintertime precipitation, rather than cold temperatures, was responsible for LIA glaciations on Svalbard and that increased heat transport into the Arctic via the West Spitsbergen Current began ca. A.D. 1600. Text Arctic Global warming Svalbard Spitsbergen University of Massachusetts: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Age Lake ENVELOPE(-97.607,-97.607,56.000,56.000) Arctic Arctic Lake ENVELOPE(-130.826,-130.826,57.231,57.231) Kongressvatnet ENVELOPE(13.931,13.931,78.022,78.022) Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago
institution Open Polar
collection University of Massachusetts: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
op_collection_id ftunivmassamh
language unknown
topic Little Ice Age
lake sediments
Svalbard
biogeochemistry
Climate
Sedimentology
spellingShingle Little Ice Age
lake sediments
Svalbard
biogeochemistry
Climate
Sedimentology
D'Andrea, William J
Bradley, Raymond S
Vaillencourt, David
Balascio, Nicholas L
Werner, Al
Roof, Steve
Retelle, Michael J
A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard
topic_facet Little Ice Age
lake sediments
Svalbard
biogeochemistry
Climate
Sedimentology
description The Arctic region is subject to a great amplitude of climate variability and is currently undergoing large-scale changes due in part to anthropogenic global warming. Accurate projections of future change depend on anticipating the response of the Arctic climate system to forcing, and understanding how the response to human forcing will interact with natural climate variations. The Svalbard Archipelago occupies an important location for studying patterns and causes of Arctic climate variability; however, available paleoclimate records from Svalbard are of restricted use due to limitations of existing climate proxies. Here we present a sub-decadal- to multidecadal-scale record of summer temperature for the past 1800 yr from lake sediments of Kongressvatnet on West Spitsbergen, Svalbard, based on the fi rst instrumental calibration of the alkenone paleothermometer. The age model for the High Arctic lake sediments is based on 210Pb, plutonium activity, and the first application of tephrochronology to lake sediments in this region. We fi nd that the summer warmth of the past 50 yr recorded in both the instrumental and alkenone records was unmatched in West Spitsbergen in the course of the past 1800 yr, including during the Medieval Climate Anomaly, and that summers during the Little Ice Age (LIA) of the 18th and 19th centuries on Svalbard were not particularly cold, even though glaciers occupied their maximum Holocene extent. Our results suggest that increased wintertime precipitation, rather than cold temperatures, was responsible for LIA glaciations on Svalbard and that increased heat transport into the Arctic via the West Spitsbergen Current began ca. A.D. 1600.
format Text
author D'Andrea, William J
Bradley, Raymond S
Vaillencourt, David
Balascio, Nicholas L
Werner, Al
Roof, Steve
Retelle, Michael J
author_facet D'Andrea, William J
Bradley, Raymond S
Vaillencourt, David
Balascio, Nicholas L
Werner, Al
Roof, Steve
Retelle, Michael J
author_sort D'Andrea, William J
title A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard
title_short A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard
title_full A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard
title_fullStr A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard
title_full_unstemmed A mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from Svalbard
title_sort mild little ice age and unprecedented warmth in an 1800 year record from svalbard
publisher SelectedWorks
publishDate 2012
url https://works.bepress.com/raymond_bradley/80
https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=raymond_bradley
long_lat ENVELOPE(-97.607,-97.607,56.000,56.000)
ENVELOPE(-130.826,-130.826,57.231,57.231)
ENVELOPE(13.931,13.931,78.022,78.022)
geographic Age Lake
Arctic
Arctic Lake
Kongressvatnet
Svalbard
Svalbard Archipelago
geographic_facet Age Lake
Arctic
Arctic Lake
Kongressvatnet
Svalbard
Svalbard Archipelago
genre Arctic
Global warming
Svalbard
Spitsbergen
genre_facet Arctic
Global warming
Svalbard
Spitsbergen
op_source Raymond S Bradley
op_relation https://works.bepress.com/raymond_bradley/80
https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=raymond_bradley
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