Holocene Winter Paleoclimate Reconstructions from Ice-Wedge Archives in the Northwestern Canadian Arctic

• Main Author: Holland, Kira Michelle
• Other Authors: Porter, Trevor J, Geography
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: High-Latitude; Holocene; Ice Wedges; Marine Aerosols; Water Isotopes; 0653; Arctic; Tuktoyaktuk; Beaufort Sea; ice core; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/101124

Ice wedges, a direct cold-season precipitation archive, capture a season rarely represented in Arctic paleoclimate proxy records. This thesis utilizes Holocene ice wedges from the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands (Beaufort Sea coast) to i) develop a winter temperature record from ice-wedge stable water isotopes (δ18O and δD), and ii) to explore the potential of marine aerosol contributions to ice-wedge ion geochemistry to inform past sea ice conditions and paleogeography. A long-term increase in water isotopes from ~7,400 to ~640 yr b2k indicates increasing winter temperatures, following increasing winter insolation at 69°N. Likewise, an increase in the sea-salt component of the major ion record from ~4,600 to ~640 yr b2k may indicate increasing open water conditions in the Beaufort Sea or decreased continentality of the study site. This research supports the potential of ice wedges to provide insight into winter climate dynamics in Arctic regions where glacial ice-core records are unattainable. M.Sc.