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Two ice-core delta O-18 records from Svalbard illustrating climate and sea-ice variability over the last 400 years
- Source :
- Holocene, 15(4), 501-509. SAGE Publications Inc., The Holocene
- Publication Year :
- 2005
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications Inc., 2005.
-
Abstract
- Ice cores from the relatively low-lying ice caps in Svalbard have not been widely exploited in climatic studies owing to uncertainties about the effect of meltwater percolation. However, results from two new Svalbard ice cores, at Lomonosovfonna and Austfonna, have shown that with careful site selection, high-resolution sampling and multiple chemical analyses it is possible to recover ice cores from which part of the annual signals are preserved, despite the considerable meltwater percolation. The new Svalbard ice cores are positioned in different parts of Svalbard and cover the past 800 years. In this paper we focus on the last 400 years. The 6180 signals from the cores are qualitatively similar over most of the twentieth century, suggesting that they record the same atmospheric signal. Prior to AD 1920, the Austfonna ice core exhibits more negative 6180 values than Lomonosovfonna, although there are intermittent decadal-scale periods throughout the record with similar values. We suggest that the differences reflect the effect of the inversion layer during the winter. The pattern in the 6180 records is similar to the Longyearbyen airtemperature record, but on an annual level the correlation is low. The Austfonna record correlates well with the temperature record from the more distant and southwesterly located Jan Mayen. A comparison of the ice-core and sea-ice records from this period suggests that sea-ice extent and Austfonna 6180 are related over the past 400 years. This may reflect the position of the storm tracks and their direct influence on the relatively low-altitude Austfonna. Lomonosovfonna may be less sensitive to such changes and primarily record free atmospheric changes instead of variations in sea-ice extent, the latter is probably a result of its higher elevation.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
Archeology
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
δ18O
Climate change
stable isotopes
glasiologi
01 natural sciences
Svalbard
AGE
Ice core
paleoklimatologi
glaciology
Paleoclimatology
Sea ice
HOLOCENE
RECONSTRUCTION
meteorology
Meltwater
TEMPERATURE
Holocene
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Earth-Surface Processes
Temperature record
ACCUMULATION
Global and Planetary Change
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
climatic change
Ecology
oxygen isotopes
paleoclimatology
Paleontology
ice-cores
LOMONOSOVFONNA
delta O-18 records
TRENDS
sea ice
late Holocene
NORTH-ATLANTIC
Climatology
CENTURIES
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
Geology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09596836
- Volume :
- 15
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Holocene
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e353edc48a6fc764d0ad45865fe7af6e