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Science 14 November 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5341, pp. 1251 - 1256
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5341.1251
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Articles

Arctic Environmental Change of the Last Four Centuries

J. Overpeck, * K. Hughen, D. Hardy, R. Bradley, R. Case, M. Douglas, B. Finney, K. Gajewski, G. Jacoby, A. Jennings, S. Lamoureux, A. Lasca, G. MacDonald, J. Moore, M. Retelle, S. Smith, A. Wolfe, G. Zielinski

A compilation of paleoclimate records from lake sediments, trees, glaciers, and marine sediments provides a view of circum-Arctic environmental variability over the last 400 years. From 1840 to the mid-20th century, the Arctic warmed to the highest temperatures in four centuries. This warming ended the Little Ice Age in the Arctic and has caused retreats of glaciers, melting of permafrost and sea ice, and alteration of terrestrial and lake ecosystems. Although warming, particularly after 1920, was likely caused by increases in atmospheric trace gases, the initiation of the warming in the mid-19th century suggests that increased solar irradiance, decreased volcanic activity, and feedbacks internal to the climate system played roles.

J. Overpeck is at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) Paleoclimatology Program, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303, USA, and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. K. Hughen, A. Jennings, J. Moore, and A. Wolfe are at INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. D. Hardy, R. Bradley, and S. Smith are in the Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. R. Case and G. MacDonald are in the Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. M. Douglas is in the Department of Geology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B1, Canada. B. Finney is at the Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA. K. Gajewski is in the Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada. G. Jacoby is at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. S. Lamoureux is in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H3, Canada. A. Lasca and M. Retelle are in the Geology Department, Bates College, Lewiston, ME 04204, USA. G. Zielinski is at the Climate Change Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jto{at}ngdc.noaa.gov

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