Our understanding of how global climatic changes are translated into ice-sheet fluctuations and sea-level change is currently limited by a lack of knowledge of the configuration of ice sheets prior ...to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Here, we compile a synthesis of empirical data and numerical modelling results related to pre-LGM ice sheets to produce new hypotheses regarding their extent in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) at 17 time-slices that span the Quaternary. Our reconstructions illustrate pronounced ice-sheet asymmetry within the last glacial cycle and significant variations in ice-marginal positions between older glacial cycles. We find support for a significant reduction in the extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during MIS 3, implying that global sea levels may have been 30-40 m higher than most previous estimates. Our ice-sheet reconstructions illustrate the current state-of-the-art knowledge of pre-LGM ice sheets and provide a conceptual framework to interpret NH landscape evolution.
The Laurentide Ice Sheet was the largest global ice mass to grow and decay during the last glacial cycle (~115 ka to ~10 ka). Despite its importance for driving major changes in global mean sea ...level, long-term landscape evolution, and atmospheric circulation patterns, the history of the Laurentide (and neighbouring Innuitian) Ice Sheet is poorly constrained owing to sporadic preservation of stratigraphic records prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~25 ka) and a case-study approach to the dating of available evidence. Here, we synthesize available geochronological data from the glaciated region, together with published stratigraphic and geomorphological data, as well as numerical modelling output, to derive 19 hypothesised reconstructions of the Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets from 115 ka to 25 ka at 5-kyr intervals, with uncertainties quantified to include best, minimum, and maximum ice extent estimates at each time-step. Our work suggests that, between 115 ka and 25 ka, some areas of North America experienced multiple cycles of rapid ice sheet growth and decay, while others remained largely ice-free, and others were continuously glaciated. Key findings include: (i) the growth and recession of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from 115 ka through 80 ka; (ii) significant build-up of ice to almost LGM extent at ~60 ka; (iii) a potentially dramatic reduction in North American ice at ~45 ka; (iv) a rapid expansion of the Labrador Dome at ~38 ka; and (v) gradual growth toward the LGM starting at ~35 ka. Some reconstructions are only loosely constrained and are therefore speculative (especially prior to 45 ka). Nevertheless, this work represents our most up-to-date understanding of the build-up of the Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the last glacial cycle to the LGM based on the available evidence. We consider these ice configurations as a series of testable hypotheses for future work to address and refine. These results are important for use across a range of disciplines including ice sheet modelling, palaeoclimatology and archaeology and are available digitally.
Well-dated paleorecords from periods prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are important for validating models of ice sheet build-up and growth. However, owing to glacial erosion, most Late ...Pleistocene records lie outside of the previously glaciated region, which limits their ability to inform about the dynamics of paleo-ice sheets. Here, we evaluate new and previously published chronology data from the Missinaibi Formation, a Pleistocene-aged deposit in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL), Canada, located near the geographic center of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS). Available radiocarbon (AMS = 44, conventional = 36), amino acid (n = 13), uranium-thorium (U-Th, n = 14), thermoluminescence (TL, n = 15) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL, n = 5) data suggest that an ice-free HBL may have been possible during parts of Marine Isotope Stage 7 (MIS 7; ca. 243,000 to ca. 190,000 yr BP), MIS 5 (ca. 130,000 to ca. 71,000 yr BP) and MIS 3 (ca. 29,000 to ca. 57,000). While MIS 7 and MIS 5 are well-documented interglacial periods, the development of peat, forest bed and fluvial deposits dating to MIS 3 (n = 20 radiocarbon dates; 4 TL dates, 3 OSL dates), suggests that the LIS retreated and remained beyond, or somewhere within, the boundaries of the HBL during this interstadial. Ice sheet models approximate the margin of the LIS to Southern Ontario during this time, which is 700 km south of the HBL. Therefore, if correct, our data help constrain a significantly different configuration and dynamicity for the LIS than previously modelled. We can find no chronological basis to discount the MIS 3 age assignments. However, since most data originate from radiocarbon dates lying close to the reliable limit of this geochronometer, future work on dating the Missinaibi Formation using other geochronological methods (e.g. U-Th, OSL) is necessary in order to confirm the age estimates and strengthen the boundaries of the LIS during this period.
•Synthesis of pre-LGM chronology data from the central region of the LIS.•Data consist of previously published (n = 88) and new contributions (n = 39).•Results suggest an ice-free HBL during parts of MIS 7, MIS 5 and MIS 3.•Radiocarbon, OSL and TL ages form the basis for the MIS 3 assignment.•Implies more dynamicity for the LIS than previously modelled for MIS 3.
We examined late Holocene (ca. 3300 yr BP to present-day) climate variability in the central Northwest Territories (Canadian Subarctic) using a diatom and sedimentological record from Danny's Lake ...(63.48ºN, 112.54ºW), located 40 km southwest of the modern-day treeline. High-resolution sampling paired with a robust age model (25 radiocarbon dates) allowed for the examination of both lake hydroecological conditions (30-year intervals; diatoms) and sedimentological changes in the watershed (12-year intervals; grain size records) over the late Holocene. Time series analysis of key lake ecological indicators (diatom species Aulacoseira alpigena, Pseudostaurosira brevistriata and Achnanthidium minutissimum) and sedimentological parameters, reflective of catchment processes (coarse silt fraction), suggests significant intermittent variations in turbidity, pH and light penetration within the lake basin. In the diatom record, we observed discontinuous periodicities in the range of ca. 69, 88-100, 115-132, 141-188, 562, 750 and 900 years (>90% and >95% confidence intervals), whereas the coarse silt fraction was characterized by periodicities in the >901 and <61-year range (>95% confidence interval). Periodicities in the proxy data from the Danny's Lake sediment core align with changes in total solar irradiance over the past ca. 3300 yr BP and we hypothesize a link to the Suess Cycle, Gleissberg Cycle and Pacific Decadal Oscillation via occasional inland propagation of shifting air masses over the Pacific Ocean. This research represents an important baseline study of the underlying causes of climate variability in the Canadian Subarctic and provides details on the long-term climate variability that has persisted in this region through the past three thousand years.
Glacial–interglacial variations in CO₂ and methane in polar ice cores have been attributed, in part, to changes in global wetland extent, but the wetland distribution before the Last Glacial Maximum ...(LGM, 21 ka to 18 ka) remains virtually unknown. We present a study of global peatland extent and carbon (C) stocks through the last glacial cycle (130 ka to present) using a newly compiled database of 1,063 detailed stratigraphic records of peat deposits buried by mineral sediments, as well as a global peatland model. Quantitative agreement between modeling and observations shows extensive peat accumulation before the LGM in northern latitudes (>40°N), particularly during warmer periods including the last interglacial (130 ka to 116 ka, MIS 5e) and the interstadial (57 ka to 29 ka, MIS 3). During cooling periods of glacial advance and permafrost formation, the burial of northern peatlands by glaciers and mineral sediments decreased active peatland extent, thickness, and modeled C stocks by 70 to 90% from warmer times. Tropical peatland extent and C stocks show little temporal variation throughout the study period. While the increased burial of northern peats was correlated with cooling periods, the burial of tropical peat was predominately driven by changes in sea level and regional hydrology. Peat burial by mineral sediments represents a mechanism for long-term terrestrial C storage in the Earth system. These results show that northern peatlands accumulate significant C stocks during warmer times, indicating their potential for C sequestration during the warming Anthropocene.
Because global sea level during the last interglacial
(LIG; 130–115 ka) was higher than today, the LIG is a useful approximate
analogue for improving predictions of future sea-level rise. Here, we
...synthesize sea-level proxies for the LIG in the glaciated Northern
Hemisphere for inclusion in the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines
(WALIS) database. We describe 82 sites from Russia, northern Europe,
Greenland and North America from a variety of settings, including boreholes,
riverbank exposures and along coastal cliffs. Marine sediments at these
sites were constrained to the LIG using a variety of radiometric methods
(radiocarbon, uranium–thorium, potassium–argon), non-radiometric methods (amino acid dating, luminescence methods, electron spin resonance,
tephrochronology) as well as various stratigraphic and palaeo-environmental approaches. In general, the sites reported in this paper do not offer constraint on the global LIG highstand, but rather evidence of glacial
isostatic adjustment (GIA)-influenced sea-level positions following the
Marine Isotope Stage 6 glaciation (MIS 6; 191–130 ka). Most of the proxies
suggest that sea level was much higher during the LIG than at the present
time. Moreover, many of the sites show evidence of regression due to
sea-level fall (owing to glacial isostatic uplift), and some also show
fluctuations that may reflect regrowth of continental ice or increased
influence of the global sea-level signal. In addition to documenting LIG sea-level sites in a large swath of the Northern Hemisphere, this compilation is
highly relevant for reconstructing the size of MIS 6 ice sheets through GIA
modelling. The database is available at
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5602212 (Dalton et al., 2021).
There is disagreement in the Quaternary research community in how much of the marine δ18O signal is driven by change in ice volume. Here, we examine this topic by bringing together empirical and ...modelling work for Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; 57 ka to 29 ka), a time when the marine δ18O record indicates moderate continental glaciation and a global mean sea level between −60 m and −90 m. We compile and interpret geological data dating to MIS 3 to constrain the extent of major Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (Eurasian, Laurentide, Cordilleran). Many key data, especially published in the past ~15 years, argue for an ice-free core of the formerly glaciated regions that is inconsistent with inferences from the marine δ18O record. We compile results from prior studies of glacial isostatic adjustment to show the volume of ice inferred from the marine δ18O record is unable to fit within the plausible footprint of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during MIS 3. Instead, a global mean sea level between −30 m and − 50 m is inferred from geological constraints and glacial isostatic modelling. Furthermore, limited North American ice volumes during MIS 3 are consistent with most sea-level bounds through that interval. We can find no concrete evidence of large-scale glaciation during MIS 3 that could account for the missing ~30 m of sea-level equivalent during that time, which suggests that changes in the marine δ18O record are driven by other variables, including water temperature. This work urges caution regarding the reliance of the marine δ18O record as a de facto indicator of continental ice when few geological constraints are available, which underpins many Quaternary studies.
•Establishes a footprint of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during MIS 3.•Geological data suggest an ice-free core of the formerly glaciated regions during MIS 3.•Explores inconsistencies between geological data and the marine δ18O record.•Identifies a ~ 30 m discrepancy in sea-level equivalent during MIS 3.•Results suggest rapid glacier growth in response to climate variability.
We compile a multi-proxy Holocene record from North Raft Lake located in the sub-Arctic Hudson Bay Lowlands, Canada. Specifically, we use subfossil chironomid, diatom, and pollen assemblages, ...non-pollen palynomorphs, sedimentary chlorophyll
a
, magnetic susceptibility, and organic matter content to characterize terrestrial and lake processes and to track paleoclimate following land emergence from the postglacial Tyrrell Sea. Following recession of the Tyrrell Sea (~ 6600 cal yr BP), pollen assemblages are indicative of a salt marsh environment with the establishment of an opportunistic chironomid assemblage. By ~ 6200 cal yr BP, isostatic uplift reduced the marine influence and pollen and palynomorph assemblage changes indicate that North Raft Lake became a closed-basin freshwater system. At this time, pollen assemblages signify the establishment of a forested peatland dominated by
Picea
, and chironomid taxa indicate warming water temperatures. The North Raft Lake pollen/palynomorph record captures a warm and moist mid-Holocene (Holocene Thermal Maximum) period starting ~ 6200 cal yr BP. During this period, an increase in pollen concentration and a shift to higher abundances of
Larix
indicate watershed-scale succession and enhanced local ecosystem productivity. Shifts in chironomid taxa at ~ 5000 cal yr BP are indicative of abrupt limnological changes suggesting wet conditions that caused an expansion of littoral habitat. The gradual transition into Neoglacial cooling is signaled by an increase in the abundances of cold-stenothermal chironomid taxa and a small decline in pollen-reconstructed temperatures. Marked changes occur in the mid-twentieth century with the appearance of diatoms in notable abundances for the first time in the lake’s sedimentary record, the arrival of new chironomid littoral taxa, and unprecedented increases in sedimentary chlorophyll
a
and organic matter content. Throughout the North Raft Lake Holocene sediment record, the pollen trends suggest slow centennial-scale changes in temperature and precipitation, whereas chironomid assemblages indicate abrupt mid-Holocene and twentieth century limnological changes, stressing that biota in lakes of the Hudson Bay Lowlands may change substantially under future scenarios of global climate warming.
PDF
