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The signal of climate changes over the last two millennia in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2021

Xiner Wu Open the ORCID record for Xiner Wu [Opens in a new window] ,
Anne de Vernal ,
Bianca Fréchette ,
Matthias Moros  and
Kerstin Perner
Xiner Wu*
Affiliation:
Geotop, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 201 avenue du Président Kennedy, Montréal, QuébecH3C 3P8, Canada
Anne de Vernal
Affiliation:
Geotop, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 201 avenue du Président Kennedy, Montréal, QuébecH3C 3P8, Canada
Bianca Fréchette
Affiliation:
Geotop, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 201 avenue du Président Kennedy, Montréal, QuébecH3C 3P8, Canada
Matthias Moros
Affiliation:
Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Seestrasse 15, 18119, Rostock, Germany
Kerstin Perner
Affiliation:
Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Seestrasse 15, 18119, Rostock, Germany
*
*Corresponding author at: Geotop, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 201 avenue du Président Kennedy, Montréal, Québec H3C 3P8, Canada. E-mail address: [email protected] (X. Wu).
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Abstract

Climate changes over the past two millennia in the central part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are documented in this paper with the aim of determining and understanding the natural climate variability and the impact of anthropogenic forcing at a regional scale. The palynological content (dinocysts, pollen, and spores) of the composite marine sediment core MSM46-03 collected in the Laurentian Channel was used to reconstruct oceanographic and climatic changes with a multidecadal temporal resolution. Sea-surface conditions, including summer salinity and temperature, sea-ice cover, and primary productivity, were reconstructed from dinocyst assemblages. Results revealed a remarkable cooling trend of about 4°C after 1230 cal yr BP (720 CE) and a culmination with a cold pulse dated to 170–40 cal yr BP (1780–1910 CE), which likely corresponds to the regional signal of the Little Ice Age. This cold interval was followed by a rapid warming of about 3°C. In the pollen assemblages, the decrease of Pinus abundance over the past 1700 yr suggests changes in wind regimes, likely resulting from increased southerly incursions of cold and dry Arctic air masses into southeastern Canada.

Keywords

Gulf of St. LawrenceSea-surface temperatureSea-surface salinitySea-ice coverDinocystsPollenLate HolocenePalynologyPaleoclimate
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 106 , March 2022 , pp. 28 - 43
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Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2021

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