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Proxy-based 300-year High Arctic climate warming record from Svalbard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2019

Tomi P. Luoto Open the ORCID record for Tomi P. Luoto [Opens in a new window] ,
Antti E. K. Ojala  and
Marek Zajaczkowski
Tomi P. Luoto*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Niemenkatu 73, 15140 Lahti, Finland
Antti E. K. Ojala
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Finland, Vuorimiehentie 5, 02151 Espoo, Finland
Marek Zajaczkowski
Affiliation:
Instytut Oceanologii, Polska Akademia Nauk, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81−712 Sopot, Poland
*
Author for correspondence: Tomi P. Luoto, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

We used fossil Chironomidae assemblages and the transfer function approach to reconstruct summer air temperatures over the past 300 years from a High Arctic lake in Hornsund, Svalbard. Our aims were to compare reconstructed summer temperatures with observed (last 100 years) seasonal temperatures, to determine a potential climate warming break point in the temperature series and to assess the significance and rate of the climate warming trend at the study site. The reconstructed temperatures were consistent with a previous proxy record from Svalbard and showed good correlation with the meteorological observations from Bjørnøya and Longyearbyen. From the current palaeoclimate record, we found a significant climate warming threshold in the 1930s, after which the temperatures rapidly increased. We also found that the climate warming trend was strong and statistically significant. Compared with the reconstructed Little Ice Age temperatures in late eighteenth century cooling culmination, the present day summer temperatures are >4°C higher and the temperature increase since the 1930s has been 0.5°C per decade. These results highlight the exceptionally rapid recent warming of southern Svalbard and add invaluable information on the seasonality of High Arctic climate change and Arctic amplification.

Keywords

Arctic amplificationChironomidaeClimate changePalaeoclimatologyPalaeolimnologyTemperature
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , May 2019 , pp. 132 - 141
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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