Recent changes in a remote Arctic lake are unique within the past 200,000 years

The Arctic is currently undergoing dramatic environmental transformations, but it remains largely unknown how these changes compare with long-term natural variability. Here we present a lake sediment sequence from the Canadian Arctic that records warm periods of the past 200,000 years, including the...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 106; no. 44; pp. 18443 - 18446
Main Authors Axford, Yarrow, Briner, Jason P, Cooke, Colin A, Francis, Donna R, Michelutti, Neal, Miller, Gifford H, Smol, John P, Thomas, Elizabeth K, Wilson, Cheryl R, Wolfe, Alexander P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 03.11.2009
National Acad Sciences
SeriesFrom the Cover
Subjects
Arctic Regions
Biological Sciences
Changes
Climate change
Climate models
Diatoms
Environment
Fresh Water - analysis
Freshwater Biology
Geography
Geologic Sediments - analysis
Geological time
Glacial lakes
History, Ancient
Lakes
Lentic systems
North American interglacial periods
Paleoclimatology
Physical Sciences
Sediments
Taxa
Temperature
Time Factors
Arctic Regions
Canada
Arctic region
Arctic
PN, Arctic
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Summary:The Arctic is currently undergoing dramatic environmental transformations, but it remains largely unknown how these changes compare with long-term natural variability. Here we present a lake sediment sequence from the Canadian Arctic that records warm periods of the past 200,000 years, including the 20th century. This record provides a perspective on recent changes in the Arctic and predates by approximately 80,000 years the oldest stratigraphically intact ice core recovered from the Greenland Ice Sheet. The early Holocene and the warmest part of the Last Interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage or MIS 5e) were the only periods of the past 200,000 years with summer temperatures comparable to or exceeding today's at this site. Paleoecological and geochemical data indicate that the past three interglacial periods were characterized by similar trajectories in temperature, lake biology, and lakewater pH, all of which tracked orbitally-driven solar insolation. In recent decades, however, the study site has deviated from this recurring natural pattern and has entered an environmental regime that is unique within the past 200 millennia.
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Author contributions: Y.A., J.P.B., C.A.C., D.R.F., N.M., G.H.M., J.P.S., E.K.T., C.R.W., and A.P.W. designed research; Y.A., J.P.B., C.A.C., N.M., E.K.T., and C.R.W. performed research; Y.A., J.P.B., C.A.C., D.R.F., N.M., G.H.M., J.P.S., E.K.T., C.R.W., and A.P.W. analyzed data; and Y.A. wrote the paper.
Edited by Mark Brenner, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and accepted by the Editorial Board September 1, 2009
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0907094106