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Holocene records of effective precipitation in West Greenland

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Department of Environmental History and Climate Change, Thoravej 8, DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark; Biology Department, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S OA2, Canadax suzanne.mcgowan{at}uregina.ca

David B. Ryves

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Department of Environmental History and Climate Change, Thoravej 8, DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark

N. John Anderson

Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark

Holocene changes in effective precipitation (precipitation-evaporation; P-E) were reconstructed for the Søndre Strømfjord region of southwest Greenland using the sediment records of two neighbouring closed-basin ‘saline’ lakes. Past lakewater conductivities (a proxy for P-E balance) were estimated using a diatom-inferred conductivity model. Broadly similar changes in both lake records corroborate the use of DI conductivity as a regional climate proxy. An increasing DI conductivity trend through the Holocene indicated net negative or balanced P-E ratios in this region, even during most of the Neoglacial period (post-4000 yr BP). This contrasts with other regions of West Greenland, where conditions became more humid in the Neoglacial period. The reconstructions presented here therefore suggest a high degree of spatial variability in the P-E balance, likely caused by region-specific orographic features. While interpret ation of the mid-Holocene P-E balance was limited by dissolution of the diatom record, other sediment indicators suggest a period of extremely negative effective precipitation (~7000–5600 yr BP), followed by a period of positive effective precipitation lasting until 4700 yr BP. This contrasts markedly with the later Holocene, after c. 4000 yr BP, when high-frequency oscillations in DI conductivity probably reflect short-term climatic variations (amplified by in-lake processes connected with meromixis) but no long-term trends in the P-E balance.

Key Words: Palaeolimnology • palaeoclimate • diatom • transfer function • saline lakes • Arctic • Greenland • Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 13, No. 2, 239-249 (2003)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683603hl610rp


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