New Methods in the Reconstruction
of Arctic Marine Palaeoenvironments
Magdalena Łącka, Joanna Pawłowska and Marek Zajączkowski
Abstract In recent years, numerous new proxies have been developed for the
reconstruction of past environmental conditions in the polar regions. In this review
we focus on the selected methods that are used in the reconstruction of the Arctic
marine paleoenvironments, i.e., organic (IP 25 and PIP 25 index, U
K
37 and U
K
0
37 and
GDGT palaeothermometry) and inorganic geochemical indices (Mg/Ca and fragmentation/dissolution analysis) as well as genetic (ancient DNA) and physical
(XRF, magnetic susceptibility) proxies. A brief description of each of them is
presented with example applications.
1 Introduction
The surface temperatures of the Earth are most reliably known for 1850 to the present
(Jones et al. 2001; Brohan et al. 2006) because there has been reasonable global
coverage of stations that systematically measured temperature for that period. The
instrumental record is generally considered to not to be long enough to give a
complete picture of climatic variability. Recent records are also likely influenced by
human activity (Barnett et al. 1999). Therefore, it is crucial to extend the record of
climatic changes beyond the era of instrumental measurements to understand how
large natural climatic variability can be, how rapidly the climate may change, which
internal mechanisms drive climatic changes on regional and global scales, and what
external or internal forcing factors control them (Houghton et al. 1996).
The Arctic is generally recognised as an area where climate changes have a
disproportionally large impact (ACIA 2005). The Arctic air temperature during the
20th century was the highest of the past 400 years (Serreze et al. 2000), and IPCC
reports (2007, 2013) predict that this trend will continue in the coming decades.
M. Łącka (&) Á J. Pawłowska Á M. Zajączkowski
Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland
e-mail: mlacka@iopan.gda.pl
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
T. Zielinski et al. (eds.), Impact of Climate Changes on Marine Environments,
GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-14283-8_10
127
of Arctic Marine Palaeoenvironments
Magdalena Łącka, Joanna Pawłowska and Marek Zajączkowski
Abstract In recent years, numerous new proxies have been developed for the
reconstruction of past environmental conditions in the polar regions. In this review
we focus on the selected methods that are used in the reconstruction of the Arctic
marine paleoenvironments, i.e., organic (IP 25 and PIP 25 index, U
K
37 and U
K
0
37 and
GDGT palaeothermometry) and inorganic geochemical indices (Mg/Ca and fragmentation/dissolution analysis) as well as genetic (ancient DNA) and physical
(XRF, magnetic susceptibility) proxies. A brief description of each of them is
presented with example applications.
1 Introduction
The surface temperatures of the Earth are most reliably known for 1850 to the present
(Jones et al. 2001; Brohan et al. 2006) because there has been reasonable global
coverage of stations that systematically measured temperature for that period. The
instrumental record is generally considered to not to be long enough to give a
complete picture of climatic variability. Recent records are also likely influenced by
human activity (Barnett et al. 1999). Therefore, it is crucial to extend the record of
climatic changes beyond the era of instrumental measurements to understand how
large natural climatic variability can be, how rapidly the climate may change, which
internal mechanisms drive climatic changes on regional and global scales, and what
external or internal forcing factors control them (Houghton et al. 1996).
The Arctic is generally recognised as an area where climate changes have a
disproportionally large impact (ACIA 2005). The Arctic air temperature during the
20th century was the highest of the past 400 years (Serreze et al. 2000), and IPCC
reports (2007, 2013) predict that this trend will continue in the coming decades.
M. Łącka (&) Á J. Pawłowska Á M. Zajączkowski
Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland
e-mail: mlacka@iopan.gda.pl
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
T. Zielinski et al. (eds.), Impact of Climate Changes on Marine Environments,
GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-14283-8_10
127