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Unprecedented recent summer warmth in Arctic Canada
Author(s) -
Miller Gifford H.,
Lehman Scott J.,
Refsnider Kurt A.,
Southon John R.,
Zhong Yafang
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2013gl057188
Subject(s) - tundra , climatology , arctic , glacier , environmental science , arctic ice pack , sea ice , climate change , snow , physical geography , holocene , latitude , arctic geoengineering , precipitation , permafrost , oceanography , geology , geography , antarctic sea ice , meteorology , geodesy
Arctic air temperatures have increased in recent decades, along with documented reductions in sea ice, glacier size, and snow cover. However, the extent to which recent Arctic warming has been anomalous with respect to long‐term natural climate variability remains uncertain. Here we use 145 radiocarbon dates on rooted tundra plants revealed by receding cold‐based ice caps in the eastern Canadian Arctic to show that 5000 years of regional summertime cooling has been reversed, with average summer temperatures of the last ~100 years now higher than during any century in more than 44,000 years, including the peak warmth of the early Holocene when high‐latitude summer insolation was 9% greater than present. Reconstructed changes in snowline elevation suggest that summers cooled ~2.7°C over the past 5000 years, approximately twice the response predicted by Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 climate models. Our results indicate that anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases have led to unprecedented regional warmth.