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- Title
Multi-proxy record of postglacial environmental change, south-central Melville Island, Northwest Territories, Canada
- Authors
Peros, Matthew; Gajewski, Konrad; Paull, Tara; Ravindra, Rebecca; Podritske, Brandi
- Abstract
Abstract: A sediment core from Lake BC01 (75°10.945′N, 111°55.181′W, 225 m asl) on south-central Melville Island, NWT, Canada, provides the first continuous postglacial environmental record for the region. Fossil pollen results indicate that the postglacial landscape was dominated by Poaceae and Salix, typical of a High Arctic plant community, whereas the Arctic herb Oxyria underwent a gradual increase during the late Holocene. Pollen-based climate reconstructions suggests the presence of a cold and dry period ~12,000 cal yr BP, possibly representing the Younger Dryas, followed by warmer and wetter conditions from 11,000 to 5000 cal yr BP, likely reflective of the Holocene Thermal Maximum. The climate then underwent a gradual cooling and drying from 5000 cal yr BP to the present, suggesting a late Holocene neoglacial cooling. Diatom preservation was poor prior to 5000 cal yr BP, when conditions were warmest, suggesting that diatom dissolution may in part be climatically controlled. Diatom concentrations were highest ~4500 cal yr BP but then decreased substantially by 3500 cal yr BP and remained low before recovering slightly in the 20th century. An abrupt warming occurred during the past 70 yr at the site, although the magnitude of this warming did not exceed that of the early Holocene.
- Subjects
MELVILLE Island (N.S.); NOVA Scotia; NORTHWEST Territories; CANADA; HOLOCENE paleoclimatology; GLACIAL climates; LAKE sediments; DIATOMS
- Publication
Quaternary Research, 2010, Vol 73, Issue 2, p247
- ISSN
0033-5894
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1016/j.yqres.2009.11.010