Impact of Holocene Climate Variability on Arctic Vegetation

English Abstract:

Using all available postglacial pollen data from across the Canadian Arctic and around Greenland, the regional vegetation history was studied in the context of Holocene climate variability. Pollen records from several islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago show that most taxa arrived immediately after local deglaciation, in spite of the apparent obstacles to dispersal. The fossil pollen records were compared to modern samples from the Arctic to determine if the vegetation during the early to mid-Holocene warm period resembled the modern vegetation. Most Holocene pollen samples find analogues in the modern data, although the values of squared chord distance (SQD), which defines similarity between fossil and modern data, tend to be larger in samples older than 5000 cal yr BP. Plant production, as measured by pollen influx tended to be greater during warmer periods.