Rapidly receding Arctic Canada glaciers revealing landscapes continuously ice-covered for more than 40,000 years.

ABSTRACT: Arctic temperatures are increasing faster than the Northern Hemisphere average due to strong positive feedbacks unique to polar regions. However, the degree to which recent Arctic warming is unprecedented remains debated. Ages of entombed plants in growth position preserved by now receding ice caps in Arctic Canada help to address this issue by placing recent conditions in a multi-millennial context. Here we show that pre-Holocene radiocarbon dates on plants collected at the margins of 30 ice caps in Arctic Canada suggest those locations were continuously ice covered for > 40 kyr, but are now ice-free. We use in situ ¹⁴C inventories in rocks from nine locations to explore the possibility of brief exposure during the warm early Holocene. Modeling the evolution of in situ ^14<

SUBMITTER: Pendleton SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6347664 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature