Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:31:01.098Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A 750-yr record of autumn snowfall and temperature variability and winter storminess recorded in the varved sediments of Bear Lake, Devon Island, Arctic Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Scott F. Lamoureux  and
Robert Gilbert
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The varve record from High Arctic, proglacial Bear Lake reveals a regionally coherent hydroclimatic signal as well as complexities due to changing hydroclimatic and limnologic conditions. Varve formation is strongly dependent on underflows that exhibit variability in strength during the past 750 yr. Periods with reduced underflow sedimentation and accumulation rates fail to produce varves in the distal part of the lake. Isolated coarse silt and sand grains occur in 80% of the varves and are interpreted to be niveo-aeolian in origin. Coarse (>500 μm) sand grains deposited on the lake ice by strong winter winds are notably less common since A.D. 1850, likely due to reduced storminess. Regression of the varve thickness record with meteorological records indicates high correlations with autumn (September and October) temperatures and total monthly snowfall. These correlations are best at times when underflow activity is sufficiently strong to produce varves throughout the lake. The close association with warmer temperatures and snow-bearing synoptic systems moving north in Baffin Bay suggests that the primary climate signal in the varves is varying autumn snow pack that controls nival discharge in the following year. The similarity between the other records of melt season temperature and sea-ice cover and the Bear Lake record suggests that summer and autumn conditions were generally similar across the Baffin Bay region through much of the last millennium.

Keywords

VarvesLacustrine sedimentsUnderflowsNiveo-aeolian sedimentLimnological processesClimate change
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , March 2004 , pp. 134 - 147
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alt, B.T., Koerner, R.M., Fisher, D.A., Bourgeois, J.C., (1985). Arctic climate during the Franklin era, as deduced from ice cores. Sutherland, P.D., The Franklin Era in Canadian Arctic History 1845–1859. Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper. vol. 131, 69–92.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S., (1988). Stratigraphic charcoal analysis on petrographic thin sections: application to fire history in northwestern Minnesota. Quaternary Research. 30, 81–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, W., Anderson, R., Bradbury, J.P., Anderson, D., (2002). A 1500-year record of climatic and environmental change in Elk Lake, Minnesota I: varve thickness and gray-scale density. Journal of Paleolimnology. 27, 287–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, M.S.V., Smol, J.P., Blake, W.J., (1994). Marked post-18th century environmental change in high-arctic ecosystems. Science. 266, 416–419.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dyke, A.S., (1999). Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation of Devon Island, arctic Canada: support for an Innuitian Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews. 18, 393–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyurgerov, M., (2002). Glacier Mass Balance and Regime: Data of Measurements and Analysis. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Occasional Paper. vol. 55, .Google Scholar
Francus, P., Bradley, R.S., Abbott, M.B., Patridge, W., Keimig, F., (2002a). Paleoclimate studies of minerogenic sediments using annually resolved textural parameters. Geophysical Research Letters. 29, 1998–2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francus, P., Keimig, F., Besonen, M., (2002b). An algorithm to aid varve counting and measurement from thin-sections. Journal of Paleolimnology. 28, 283–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gajewski, K., Hamilton, P.B., McNeely, R., (1997). A high resolution proxy-climate record from an arctic lake with annually-laminated sediments on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology. 17, 215–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, R., (1975). Sedimentation in Lillooet Lake, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 12, 1697–1711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, R., (1990). Rafting in glacimarine environments. Dowdeswell, J.A., Scourse, J.D., Glacimarine Environments: Processes and Sediments. Geological Society Special Publication. vol. 53, 105–120., London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, R., Desloges, J.R., Clague, J.J., (1997). The glacilacustrine sedimentary environment of Bowser Lake in the northern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology. 17, 331–346.Google Scholar
Grumet, N.S., Wake, C.P., Mayewski, P.A., Zielinski, G.A., Whitlow, S.I., Koerner, R.M., Fisher, D.A., Woollett, J.M., (2001). Variability of sea-ice extent in Baffin Bay over the last millennium. Climatic Change. 49, 129–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanna, E., Cappelen, J., (2003). Recent cooling in coastal southern Greenland and relation with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Geophysical Research Letters. 30, .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, D.R., (1996). Climatic influences on streamflow and sediment flux into Lake C2, northern Ellesmere Island, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology. 16, 133–149.Google Scholar
Hughen, K.A., Overpeck, J.T., Anderson, R.F., (2000). Recent warming in a 500-year palaeotemperature record from varved sediments, Upper Soper Lake, Baffin Island, Canada. The Holocene. 10, 9–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kashiwaya, K., Fukuyama, K., Yamamoto, A., (1991). Time variation in coarse materials from lake bottom sediments and secular paleoclimatic change. Geophysical Research Letters. 18, 1245–1248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, R.M., Fisher, D.A., (1990). A record of Holocene summer climate from a Canadian high-Arctic ice core. Nature. 343, 630–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuenen, P.H., (1951). Turbidity currents as the cause of glacial varves. Journal of Geology. 59, 507–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux, S.F., (1999a). Spatial and interannual variations in sedimentation patterns recorded in nonglacial varved sediments from the Canadian High Arctic. Journal of Paleolimnology. 21, 73–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux, S.F., (1999b). Catchment and lake controls over the formation of varves in monomictic Nicolay Lake, Cornwall Island, Nunavut. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 36, 1533–1546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux, S.F., (2000). Five centuries of interannual sediment yield and rainfall-induced erosion in the Canadian High Arctic recorded in lacustrine varves. Water Resources Research. 36, 309–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux, S.F., (2001). Varve chronology techniques. Last, W.M., Smol, J.P., Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research (DEPR), Vol. 2—Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments: Physical and Chemical Techniques. Kluwer, Dordrecht., 247–260.Google Scholar
Lamoureux, S.F., (2002). Temporal patterns of suspended sediment yield following moderate to extreme hydrological events recorded in varved lacustrine sediments. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 27, 1107–1124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux, S.F., England, J.H., Sharp, M.J., Bush, A.B.G., (2001). A varve record of increased Little Ice Age rainfall associated with volcanic activity, Arctic Archipelago, Canada. The Holocene. 11, 243–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux, S.F., Gilbert, R., Lewis, T., (2002). Lacustrine sedimentary environments in High Arctic proglacial Bear Lake, Devon Island, Nunavut. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research. 34, 130–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, T., Gilbert, R., Lamoureux, S.F., (2002). Spatial and temporal changes in sedimentary processes at proglacial Bear Lake, Devon Island, Nunavut. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research. 34, 119–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, J.B., (1980). The Climate of the Canadian Arctic Islands and Adjacent Waters. Environment Canada, Ottawa.Google Scholar
McKenna Neuman, C., (1990). Observations of winter aeolian transport and niveo-aeolian deposition at Crater Lake, Pangnirtung Pass, N.W.T. Canada. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 1, 235–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenna Neuman, C., (1993). A review of aeolian transport transport processes in cold environments. Progress in Physical Geography. 17, 137–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, J.J., Hughen, K.A., Miller, G.H., Overpeck, J.T., (2001). Little Ice Age recorded in summer temperature reconstruction from varved sediments of Donard Lake, Baffin Island, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology. 25, 503–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholas, A.P., Ashworth, P.J., Kirkby, M.J., Macklin, M.G., Murray, T., (1995). Sediment slugs: large-scale fluctuations in fluvial sediment transport rates and storage volumes. Progress in Physical Geography. 19, 500–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overpeck, J., Hughen, K.A., Hardy, D., Bradley, R., Case, R., Douglas, M., Finney, B., Gajewski, K., Jacoby, G., Jennings, A., Lamoureux, S., Lasca, A., MacDonald, G., Moore, J., Retelle, M., Smith, S., Wolfe, A., Zielinski, G., (1997). Arctic environmental change of the last four centuries. Science. 278, 1251–1256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paterson, W.S.B., Koerner, R.M., Fisher, D., Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Dansgaard, W., Bucher, P., Oeschger, H., (1977). An oxygen-isotope climatic record from the Devon Island ice cap, Arctic Canada. Nature. 266, 508–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Retelle, M.J., (1986). Stratigraphy and sedimentology of coastal lacustrine basins, northeastern Ellesmere Island. N.W.T. Geographie physique et Quaternaire. 40, 117–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, N.D., (1978). Sedimentation processes and patterns in a glacier-fed lake with low sediment input. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 15, 741–756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturm, M., Matter, A., (1978). Turbidites and varves in Lake Brienz (Switzerland); deposition of clastic detritus by density currents. Matter, A.E., Tucker, M.E.E., Modern and Ancient Lake Sediments. 147–168., Copenhagen.Google Scholar