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Ice‐Wedge Evidence of Holocene Winter Warming in the Canadian Arctic
Author(s) -
Holland Kira M.,
Porter Trevor J.,
Froese Duane G.,
Kokelj Steven V.,
Buchanan Casey A.
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020gl087942
Subject(s) - arctic , holocene , climatology , paleoclimatology , arctic dipole anomaly , arctic sea ice decline , arctic ice pack , insolation , climate change , precipitation , environmental science , arctic ecology , arctic geoengineering , oceanography , sea ice , physical geography , geology , geography , drift ice , meteorology
Arctic summer temperatures mostly cooled over the last ~7 kyr, owing to decreasing summer insolation. However, knowledge of the winter season is limited in the Arctic paleoclimate literature. Here we develop a composite record of δ 18 O from ice wedges—a winter precipitation archive—to reconstruct changes in winter climate in the northwestern Canadian Arctic since ~7.4 kyr b2k. Our record shows a long‐term δ 18 O enrichment (+(0.14 ± 0.10)‰ kyr −1 ), suggesting winter temperatures increased since the mid‐Holocene, a finding that is corroborated by reconstructions from the Siberian Arctic. Winter warming over the last ~7 kyr is consistent with increasing winter insolation and greenhouse gas forcing. This study provides some of the first insights on the sensitivity of winter temperatures in the Canadian Arctic to past, and potentially future, climate forcings, and contributes to a more seasonally holistic understanding of the Arctic system.