TY - JOUR T1 - Younger-Dryas cooling and sea-ice feedbacks were prominent features of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Arctic Alaska JF - Quaternary Science Reviews Y1 - 2017 A1 - Gaglioti, Benjamin V. A1 - Mann, Daniel H. A1 - Wooller, Matthew J. A1 - Jones, Benjamin M. A1 - Wiles, Gregory C. A1 - Groves, Pamela A1 - Kunz, Michael L. A1 - Baughman, Carson A. A1 - Reanier, Richard E. KW - alaska KW - Arctic KW - Bering Strait KW - Climate change KW - dendrochronology KW - north pacific KW - oxygen isotopes KW - Paleoclimate KW - Sea ice KW - Younger Dryas AB - Declining sea-ice extent is currently amplifying climate warming in the Arctic. Instrumental records at high latitudes are too short-term to provide sufficient historical context for these trends, so paleoclimate archives are needed to better understand the functioning of the sea ice-albedo feedback. Here we use the oxygen isotope values of wood cellulose in living and sub-fossil willow shrubs (δ18Owc) (Salix spp.) that have been radiocarbon-dated (14C) to produce a multi-millennial record of climatic change on Alaska's North Slope during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (13,500–7500 calibrated 14C years before present; 13.5–7.5 ka). We first analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns of δ18Owc in living willows growing at upland sites and found that over the last 30 years δ18Owc values in individual growth rings correlate with local summer temperature and inter-annual variations in summer sea-ice extent. Deglacial δ18Owc values from 145 samples of subfossil willows clearly record the Allerød warm period (∼13.2 ka), the Younger Dryas cold period (12.9–11.7 ka), and the Holocene Thermal Maximum (11.7–9.0 ka). The magnitudes of isotopic changes over these rapid climate oscillations were ∼4.5‰, which is about 60% of the differences in δ18Owc between those willows growing during the last glacial period and today. Modeling of isotope-precipitation relationships based on Rayleigh distillation processes suggests that during the Younger Dryas these large shifts in δ18Owc values were caused by interactions between local temperature and changes in evaporative moisture sources, the latter controlled by sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. Based on these results and on the effects that sea-ice have on climate today, we infer that ocean-derived feedbacks amplified temperature changes and enhanced precipitation in coastal regions of Arctic Alaska during warm times in the past. Today, isotope values in willows on the North Slope of Alaska are similar to those growing during the warmest times of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, which were times of widespread permafrost thaw and striking ecological changes. VL - 169 UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379117301713 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Evidence of multiple thermokarst lake generations from an 11 800-year-old permafrost core on the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska JF - Boreas Y1 - 2016 A1 - Lenz, Josefine A1 - Wetterich, Sebastian A1 - Jones, Benjamin M. A1 - Meyer, Hanno A1 - Bobrov, Anatoly A1 - Grosse, Guido AB - Permafrost degradation influences the morphology, biogeochemical cycling and hydrology of Arctic landscapes over a range of time scales. To reconstruct temporal patterns of early to late Holocene permafrost and thermokarst dynamics, site-specific palaeo-records are needed. Here we present a multi-proxy study of a 350-cm-long permafrost core from a drained lake basin on the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska, revealing Lateglacial to Holocene thermokarst lake dynamics in a central location of Beringia. Use of radiocarbon dating, micropalaeontology (ostracods and testaceans), sedimentology (grain-size analyses, magnetic susceptibility, tephra analyses), geochemistry (total nitrogen and carbon, total organic carbon, δ13Corg) and stable water isotopes (δ18O, δD, d excess) of ground ice allowed the reconstruction of several distinct thermokarst lake phases. These include a pre-lacustrine environment at the base of the core characterized by the Devil Mountain Maar tephra (22 800±280 cal. a BP, Unit A), which has vertically subsided in places due to subsequent development of a deep thermokarst lake that initiated around 11 800 cal. a BP (Unit B). At about 9000 cal. a BP this lake transitioned from a stable depositional environment to a very dynamic lake system (Unit C) characterized by fluctuating lake levels, potentially intermediate wetland development, and expansion and erosion of shore deposits. Complete drainage of this lake occurred at 1060 cal. a BP, including post-drainage sediment freezing from the top down to 154 cm and gradual accumulation of terrestrial peat (Unit D), as well as uniform upward talik refreezing. This core-based reconstruction of multiple thermokarst lake generations since 11 800 cal. a BP improves our understanding of the temporal scales of thermokarst lake development from initiation to drainage, demonstrates complex landscape evolution in the ice-rich permafrost regions of Central Beringia during the Lateglacial and Holocene, and enhances our understanding of biogeochemical cycles in thermokarst-affected regions of the Arctic. VL - 45 UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bor.12186 IS - 4 N1 - _eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bor.12186 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Radiocarbon age-offsets in an arctic lake reveal the long-term response of permafrost carbon to climate change JF - JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-BIOGEOSCIENCES Y1 - 2014 A1 - Gaglioti, Benjamin V. A1 - Mann, Daniel H. A1 - Jones, Benjamin M. A1 - Pohlman, John W. A1 - Kunz, Michael L. A1 - Wooller, Matthew J. KW - carbon cycling KW - lake sediment KW - paleoclimatology KW - permafrost KW - radiocarbon KW - Younger Dryas AB - Continued warming of the Arctic may cause permafrost to thaw and speed the decomposition of large stores of soil organic carbon (OC), thereby accentuating global warming. However, it is unclear if recent warming has raised the current rates of permafrost OC release to anomalous levels or to what extent soil carbon release is sensitive to climate forcing. Here we use a time series of radiocarbon age-offsets (C-14) between the bulk lake sediment and plant macrofossils deposited in an arctic lake as an archive for soil and permafrost OC release over the last 14,500 years. The lake traps and archives OC imported from the watershed and allows us to test whether prior warming events stimulated old carbon release and heightened age-offsets. Today, the age-offset (2ka; thousand of calibrated years before A.D. 1950) and the depositional rate of ancient OC from the watershed into the lake are relatively low and similar to those during the Younger Dryas cold interval (occurring 12.9-11.7ka). In contrast, age-offsets were higher (3.0-5.0ka) when summer air temperatures were warmer than present during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (11.7-9.0ka) and BOlling-AllerOd periods (14.5-12.9ka). During these warm times, permafrost thaw contributed to ancient OC depositional rates that were similar to 10 times greater than today. Although permafrost OC was vulnerable to climate warming in the past, we suggest surface soil organic horizons and peat are presently limiting summer thaw and carbon release. As a result, the temperature threshold to trigger widespread permafrost OC release is higher than during previous warming events. VL - 119 ER -