Long-term climate development during the last 17,000 years in marine cores from Svalbard

The ongoing warming in the Arctic is unusual for the past century, but what about in the context of past centuries or millennia? In order to assess the significance of observed Arctic climate changes, to understand the mechanisms behind natural variability of the system and to produce more reliable predictions of future climate, climate data on longer time scales than the instrumental records are needed. Therefore, we are forced to rely upon “proxy” sources to reconstruct past climate.

In this project proxy climate data records are generated from marine sediment cores using a suite of different proxies in order to trace changes in paleoceanography around Svalbard. The project focuses on the last 17,000 years which covers a time period of large to small ice-sheet extension on land and different boundary conditions (natural forcing). In particular the last two millennia from the European Arctic is a focal point because Late-Holocene climate variations are particularly important since natural forcings and the Earth´s boundary conditions have been approximately similar to those operating today. Documenting past natural climate variability and atmosphere-ocean-ice responses during the last two millennia has therefore a vital role to play in understanding the present climate and predicting future change. During the last two millennia, the climate development was punctuated by centennial-scale warmer and colder episodes, of which the most well known are the Little Ice Age (LIA about AD1500-1900), the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA about AD700-1000), the Dark Ages Cold Period (DACP about BC100 to AD700), providing us with ample century scale abrupt climate changes to study rates of climate change and thresholds.

The complex interaction between ice sheets, glacial variability, ocean and atmosphere occurs in a manner poorly understood in the Arctic. Therefore this project also focus on investigating variations in glaciers on land through time, and how they respond to and/or affect changes in the ocean currents through time. This relationship is investigated though studies of marine sediment cores from the Svalbard region.
 

Project lead: Dorthe Klitgaard Kristensen
Participants: Dorthe Klitgaard Kristensen, Patrycja Jernas, Arto Miettinen, Nalân Koç
Contact: Nalân Koç

Cooperating institutions

Del denne siden:
Facebook Twitter E-post Skriv ut