HR: 17:30h
AN: PP44A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Marine Paleoclimate Records of the Last 1500 Years off Northern Norway: An Elevated Arctic Warming?
AU: Wilson, L J
EM: Lindsay.Wilson@ig.uit.no
AF: Geological Institute, University of Tromsoe, Dramsveien 201, Tromsoe, 9037, Norway
AU: * Hald, M
EM: Morten.Hald@ig.uit.no
AF: Geological Institute, University of Tromsoe, Dramsveien 201, Tromsoe, 9037, Norway
AU: Husum, K
EM: Katrine.Husum@ig.uit.no
AF: Geological Institute, University of Tromsoe, Dramsveien 201, Tromsoe, 9037, Norway
AU: Salomonsen, G R
EM: grs@norconsult.no
AF: Norconsult, Postboks 110, Horten, 3191, Norway
AB: Instrumental records have highlighted a warming trend over the last few decades in the high northern latitudes. Current observations as well as climate modelling experiments demonstrate an amplification of the global warming signal in the polar region. This study aims to put this warming into context with natural climate change by providing longer term paleoclimate proxy records of the arctic climate signal. For this purpose we are using benthic foraminiferal derived oxygen isotope records from short marine sediment cores from the northern Norwegian continental margin. The results are presented from five cores from open ocean (western Barents Sea), shelf sea (Andfjorden) and fjord (Malangen, Vestfjorden and Sagfjorden) settings thus providing a north-to-south transect of paleoclimate records within this sub Arctic to Arctic region. Radiocarbon and Pb210 dating demonstrate a series of high- resolution (annual to decadal) timescales spanning approximately the last 500 to 2000 years. A clearly pronounced Little Ice Age (LIA) cooling period (ca. 1250-1900) is evident within all cores of ca. 1^oC variation, although a slight temporal offset exists between the records. The subsequent warming trend of > 1^oC is also offset temporally between the records, however, the marked warming of the early 20^th century is in agreement in all cores. Particular focus is placed on this clear 20^th century warming signal and statistical comparisons are made to both the historical global temperature record and northern hemisphere temperature records. Two periods of rapid warming in the middle (ca. 1940's) and late 20^th century (post 1980's) are observed in the instrumental, model and proxy data. Preliminary results suggest the Norwegian Arctic records may confirm the observed global warming trend, while further comparison studies will be required to quantify the proposed elevated response in northern latitudes.
DE: 0429 Climate dynamics (1620)
DE: 0473 Paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (3344, 4900)
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 4900 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY (0473, 3344)
DE: 4944 Micropaleontology (0459, 3030)
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting