Abstract Details

ID: 2605
Title: Climate of the last 2,000 years in North America reconstructed from pollen records
Content:

An extensive network of pollen records from across North America is used to reconstruct temperature and hydroclimatic variables in North America during the past 2ka. We show that pollen records have the ability to reconstruct high-resolution climate variability during the MWP/MCA and LIA with little or no lag. In addition, pollen records retain lower frequency climate variability that is frequently not resolved using annual records such as tree-rings. Preliminary results show that the MWP/MCA was overall slightly cooler than the calibration period (1961-1990) while the LIA was cooler than both the MWP/MCA and Modern times. The results are in agreement with annually-resolved Northern Hemispheric paleoclimate reconstruction of the past 2ka. Regional reconstructions show the complexity of low-frequency changes in climate across North America where high northern latitudes display higher sensitivity with varying regional responses across North America during the MWP/MCA and LIA. In addition, the results presented here show continued millennial-scale climate oscillations from the last glacial into the present interglacial period, although the magnitude of the millennial-scale variability is a function of the mean state of the climate.

Session: 9 Regional climate change during the last 2000 years – contributions to the PAGES 2k Network
Authors: A.E. Viau
K. Gajewski
Presenter:A.E. Viau
Type: oral