Natural Variability of Greenland Climate, Vegetation, and Ice Volume During the Past Million Years
Abstract
The response of the Greenland ice sheet to global warming is a source of concern notably because of its potential contribution to changes in the sea level. We demonstrated the natural vulnerability of the ice sheet by using pollen records from marine sediment off southwest Greenland that indicate important changes of the vegetation in Greenland over the past million years. The vegetation that developed over southern Greenland during the last interglacial period is consistent with model experiments, suggesting a reduced volume of the Greenland ice sheet. Abundant spruce pollen indicates that boreal coniferous forest developed some 400,000 years ago during the “warm” interval of marine isotope stage 11, providing a time frame for the development and decline of boreal ecosystems over a nearly ice-free Greenland.
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This study is a contribution of the Polar Climate Stability Network supported by the Canadian Foundation of Climate and Atmospheric Science. We also acknowledge financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur les Sciences de la Nature et les Technologies.
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Science
Volume 320 | Issue 5883
20 June 2008
20 June 2008
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American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Received: 10 December 2007
Accepted: 9 May 2008
Published in print: 20 June 2008
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