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Variability of Sea-Ice Extent in Baffin Bay over the Last Millennium

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Abstract

Comparison of an ice core glaciochemical time-series developed from thePenny Ice Cap (PIC), Baffin Island and monthly sea-ice extent reveals astatisticallysignificant inverse relationship between changes in Baffin Bay spring sea-iceextent andPenny Ice Cap sea-salt concentrations for the period 1901–1990 AD.Empiricalorthogonal function analysis demonstrates the joint behavior between changesin PICsea-salt concentrations, sea-ice extent, and changes in North Atlanticatmosphericcirculation. Our results suggest that sea-salt concentrations in snowpreserved on thePIC reflect local to regional springtime sea-ice coverage. The PIC sea-saltrecord/sea-ice relationship is further supported by decadal and century scalecomparisonwith other paleoclimate records of eastern Arctic climate change over the last700 years. Our sea-salt record suggests that, while the turn of the century wascharacterized bygenerally milder sea-ice conditions in Baffin Bay, the last few decades ofsea-ice extentlie within Little Ice Age variability and correspond to instrumental recordsof lowertemperatures in the Eastern Canadian Arctic over the past three decades.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Climate Change Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, U.S.A

    Nancy S. Grumet, Cameron P. Wake, Paul A. Mayewski, Gregory A. Zielinski & Sallie I. Whitlow

  2. Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0E8, Canada

    Roy M. Koerner & David A. Fisher

  3. Peary MacMillian Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, 04011, U.S.A

    James M. Woollett

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  1. Nancy S. Grumet
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  2. Cameron P. Wake
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  3. Paul A. Mayewski
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  6. Roy M. Koerner
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  7. David A. Fisher
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Grumet, N.S., Wake, C.P., Mayewski, P.A. et al. Variability of Sea-Ice Extent in Baffin Bay over the Last Millennium. Climatic Change 49, 129–145 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010794528219

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