Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes

SEA-ICE COVERAGE, IN NUMBER OF MONTHS PER YEAR
COUNT
RATIO OF LARCH TO
SPRUCE
8.0
7.5
7.0
6.5
20
15
10
5
0
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0 0 2,000 4,000 6,000
AGE (RADIOCARBON YEARS BEFORE PRESENT)
Sea Ice Baffin Bay Core 8
6.0
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000
AGE, IN RADIOCARBON YEARS BEFORE PRESENT
Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes
n = 69
8,000 10,000 12,000
A B
D1
D2
1 km
D3
BR
D4
MORE RUSSIAN DRIFTWOOD
Figure 6.9. Distribution
of radiocarbon ages of
Holocene driftwood on
the shores of Baffin Bay
(from Dyke et al., 1997).
[Reproduced by permission
of Arctic Institute of North
America.]
Figure 6.10. Reconstruction
of the duration of ice
cover (months per year) in
northern Baffin Bay during
the Holocene based on dinocyst
assemblages (modified
from Levac et al., 2001).
Figure 6.11. Aerial photo (left) of wave-generated beach ridges (BR) at Kap Ole Chiewitz, 83°25'N, northeast Greenland. D1–
D4 are raised deltas. The oldest, D1, is dated to ~10 ka while D4 is the modern delta. Only D3 is associated with wave activity.
The period of beach ridge formation is dated to ca. 8.5–6 ka. The photo on the right shows the upper beach ridge. (Funder, S.
and K. Kjær, 2007) [Copyright 2007 American Geophysical Union, reproduced by permission of American Geophysical Union.]
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