Fingerprinting the signature of Holocene polar climate shifts

Supervisors:    Jostein Bakke (UiB), William D`Andrea (Columbia University) & Ninis Rosqvist   (Stockholm University)

Project period:January 2013 – January 2016

The polar regions show an amplified response to current warming and undergo rapid changes. These will have global impacts due to the disproportionately large influence of the high latitudes on Earth`s climate system. However, available data on past polar climate variability are often scarce and hampered by a low resolution. High-resolution datasets are therefore urgently needed to improve our understanding of polar climate dynamics and put current warming into perspective.

My PhD research, carried out under the umbrella of the SHIFTS project, aims to generate records of Holocene polar climate variability on a multi-decadal resolution. The main goal is to establish high-resolution correlations between these and other proxy records to detect leads and lags between different components of the Polar climate system. Special emphasis is placed on providing an empirical basis for testing inter-hemispheric climate relations such as the bipolar seesaw.

My project focuses on lacustrine sediment records extracted from glacier-fed lakes. Glaciers are sensitive to climate change as demonstrated by their rapid response to current warming. This climate signal is continuously recorded in sediments of glacier-fed lakes by variations in glacial flour input. The climatic significance of this relation is supported by tested sedimentological, magnetic, biological and geochemical proxies that are applied for my PhD research. My research focuses on 2 glacier-fed sites in Arctic Svalbard and Subantarctic South-Georgia. Both sites are sensitive to regional climate shifts due to their proximity to major circulation systems such as the Polar Front Zone (PFZ) and the Thermohaline Circulation (THC).