Mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented recent warmth in an 1800 year lake sediment record from Svalbard

We present a lake-sediment record of pre-Columbian agriculture and fire history from the lowlands of southern Pacific Costa Rica that captures the arrival of maize agriculture at ca. 3360 cal yr BP in the Diquís subregion of the Gran Chiriquí archeological region. Our 4200-year record from Laguna Los Mangos begins 1000 to 2000 years earlier than other lake records from the region and provides the first microfossil and geochemical evidence of vegetation and fire prior to the establishment of maize agriculture. This early portion of the record shows evidence of fire events associated with land clearance or field preparation and maintenance for subsistence activities. Alternatively, these were wildfires ignited unintentionally by people or naturally by lightning or volcanism. Evidence of early maize by ca. 3200 cal yr BP was found at Laguna Zoncho in the southeastern section of the Diquís subregion. Our discovery of early maize agriculture at ca. 3360 cal yr BP in the Laguna Los Mangos watershed in the northwestern portion of the Diquís subregion indicates a rapid adoption of maize agriculture in the region after initial introduction. Pre-Columbian agriculture and fire activity at Los Mangos is nearly continual until historic times, but with a decline after ca. 1170 cal yr BP, coincident with the early Terminal Classic Drought (TCD). We infer a pronounced drying of the lowland environment at Laguna Los Mangos based on a depositional hiatus in the record at ca. 950 during late TCD. Agricultural proxies indicate reduced watershed activity during the ‘Little Ice Age’ following Spanish contact in southern Central America until the 20th century.

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Testing lake sediment and dendrogeomorphic proxies for little ice age environmental change in the upper fraser river area, british columbia, canada

Geografiska Annaler Series A Physical Geography ◽

10.1111/j.1468-0459.2010.00403.x ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 92 (3) ◽

pp. 393-410

Author(s):

Randy W. Dirszowsky ◽

Joseph R. Desloges

Keyword(s):

British Columbia ◽

Environmental Change ◽

Lake Sediment ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

Fraser River

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Climate of the Little Ice Age and the past 2000 years in northeast Iceland inferred from chironomids and other lake sediment proxies

Journal of Paleolimnology ◽

10.1007/s10933-008-9251-1 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 7-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Yarrow Axford ◽

Áslaug Geirsdóttir ◽

Gifford H. Miller ◽

Peter G. Langdon

Keyword(s):

Lake Sediment ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

The Past ◽

Past 2000 Years

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The Little Ice Age: evidence from a sediment record in Gullmar Fjord, Swedish west coast

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-10-1275-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 1275-1290 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

I. Polovodova Asteman ◽

K. Nordberg ◽

H. L. Filipsson

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Stable Carbon Isotopes ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Cold Water ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Ice Age ◽

Sediment Geochemistry ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Terrestrial Organic Matter ◽

Swedish West Coast

Abstract. We discuss the climatic and environmental changes during the last millennium in NE Europe based on a ca. 8-m long high-resolved and well-dated marine sediment record from the deepest basin of Gullmar Fjord (SW Sweden). According to the 210Pb- and 14C-datings, the record includes the period of the late Holocene characterised by anomalously cold summers and well-known as the Little Ice Age (LIA). Using benthic foraminiferal stratigraphy, lithology, bulk sediment geochemistry and stable carbon isotopes we reconstruct various phases of the cold period, identify its timing in the study area and discuss the land–sea interactions occurring during that time. The onset of the LIA is indicated by an increase in cold-water foraminiferal species Adercotryma glomerata at ~ 1350 AD The first phase of the LIA was characterised by a stormy climate and higher productivity, which is indicated by a foraminiferal unit of Nonionella iridea and Cassidulina laevigata. Maximum abundances of N. iridea probably mirror a short and abrupt warming event at ~ 1600 AD. It is likely that due to land use changes in the second part of the LIA there was an increased input of terrestrial organic matter to the fjord, which is indicated by lighter δ13C values and an increase of detritivorous and omnivorous species such as Textularia earlandi and Eggerelloides scaber. The climate deterioration during the climax of the LIA (1675–1704 AD), as suggested by the increase of agglutinated species, presence of Hyalinea balthica, and a decline of N. iridea may have driven the decline in primary productivity during this time period.

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Created by the Monte Peron rock avalanche: Lago di Vedana (Dolomites, Italy) and its sediment record of landscape evolution after a mass wasting event

10.31223/x55w32 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bernd Zolitschka ◽

Irene Polgar ◽

Hermann Behling

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Rock Avalanche ◽

Ice Age ◽

Mass Wasting ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Cultural Changes ◽

Sediment Stratigraphy ◽

Artificial Opening ◽

Lacustrine Ecosystem

The timing of the Monte Peron Landslide is revised to 2890 cal. BP based on a radiocarbon-dated sediment stratigraphy of Lago di Vedana. This age fosters the importance of hydroclimatic triggers in the light of accelerating global warming with a predicted increase of precipitation enhancing the regional predisposition to large landslides. Moreover, a layer enriched in allochthonous organic and minerogenic detritus dating to the same wet period is interpreted as response to a younger and yet unidentified mass wasting event in the catchment of Lago di Vedana. Rock debris of the Monte Peron Landslide impounded the Cordevole River valley and created a landslide-dammed lake. Around AD 1150, eutrophication of this lacustrine ecosystem started with intensified human occupation – a process that ended 150 years later, when the river was diverted back into its original bed. Most likely, this occurred due to artificial opening of the river dam. In consequence, Lago di Vedana was isolated from an open and minerogenic to an endorheic and carbonaceous lacustrine system. After a monastery was established nearby in AD 1457, a second eutrophication process was initiated due to intensified land use linked with deforestation. Only in the 18th and 19th century, deposition of organic matter decreased coinciding with climatic (Little Ice Age) and cultural changes. Conversational measures are the likely reasons for a trend towards less eutrophic conditions since AD 1950.

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Severe Little Ice Age drought in the midcontinental United States during the Mississippian abandonment of Cahokia

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-92900-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

David P. Pompeani ◽

Broxton W. Bird ◽

Jeremy J. Wilson ◽

William P. Gilhooly ◽

Aubrey L. Hillman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Native American ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Food Production ◽

Ice Age ◽

Oxbow Lake ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Effective Moisture ◽

Horseshoe Lake ◽

Global Food

AbstractDrought has long been suspected as playing an important role in the abandonment of pre-Columbian Native American settlements across the midcontinental United States between 1350 and 1450 CE. However, high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstructions reflecting local effective moisture (the ratio of precipitation to evaporation) that are located in proximity to Mississippi period (1050–1450 CE) population centers are lacking. Here, we present a 1600-year-long decadally resolved oxygen isotope (δ18O) record from Horseshoe Lake (Collinsville, IL), an evaporatively influenced oxbow lake that is centrally located within the largest and mostly densely populated series of Mississippian settlements known as Greater Cahokia. A shift to higher δ18O in the Horseshoe Lake sediment record from 1200 to 1400 CE indicates that strongly evaporative conditions (i.e., low effective moisture) were persistent during the leadup to Cahokia’s abandonment. These results support the hypothesis that climate, and drought specifically, strongly impacted agriculturally based pre-Columbian Native American cultures in the midcontinental US and highlights the susceptibility of this region, presently a global food production center, to hydroclimate extremes.

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The Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age from a sediment record of Lake Ebinur, northwest China

Boreas ◽

10.1111/j.1502-3885.2010.00200.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 518-524 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

MA LONG ◽

WU JINGLU ◽

YU HONG ◽

ZENG HAIAO ◽

JILILI ABUDUWAILI

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Northwest China ◽

Medieval Warm Period ◽

Warm Period ◽

Ice Age ◽

Sediment Record

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The Little Ice Age: evidence from a sediment record in Gullmar Fjord, Swedish west coast

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-9-14053-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (10) ◽

pp. 14053-14089 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

I. Polovodova Asteman ◽

K. Nordberg ◽

H. L. Filipsson

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Stable Carbon Isotopes ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Cold Water ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Ice Age ◽

Sediment Geochemistry ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Terrestrial Organic Matter ◽

Swedish West Coast

Abstract. We discuss the climatic and environmental changes during the last millennium in NE Europe based on a ca. 8-m long high-resolved and well-dated marine sediment record from the deepest basin of Gullmar Fjord (SW Sweden). According to the 210Pb- and 14C-datings, the record includes the period of the late Holocene characterised by anomalously cold summers and well known as the Little Ice Age (LIA). Using benthic foraminiferal stratigraphy, lithology, bulk sediment geochemistry and stable carbon isotopes we reconstruct various phases of this cold period, identify its timing in the study area and discuss the land-sea interactions occurring during that time. The onset of the LIA is indicated by an increase in cold-water foraminiferal species Adercotryma glomerata at ~ 1350 AD. The first phase of the LIA was characterised by a stormy but milder climate, which is indicated by a presence of Nonionella iridea. Maximum abundances of this species are likely to mirror a short and abrupt warming event at ~ 1600 AD. It is likely that due to land use changes in the second part of the LIA there was an increased input of terrestrial organic matter to the fjord, which is indicated by lighter δ13C values and an increase of detritivorous and omnivorous species as Textularia earlandi and Eggerelloides scaber. The climate deterioration during the climax of the LIA (1675–1704 AD), as suggested by the agglutinated species, caused some carbonate dissolution, variations in primary productivity and a decline of N. iridea dependant on fresh phytodetritus. It is also assumed that an increase of Hyalinea balthica could be indicative of climate warming trends at 1600–1743 and 1813–1940 AD.

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Greenhouses, hot water bottles, cycles and the future of New Zealand climate

Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association ◽

10.33584/jnzg.2009.71.2772 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 61-67

Author(s):

W.P. De Lange

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Thermal Energy ◽

Infrared Radiation ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Hot Water ◽

Ice Age ◽

The Sun ◽

Weather Patterns ◽

Time Periods ◽

Almost All

The Greenhouse Effect acts to slow the escape of infrared radiation to space, and hence warms the atmosphere. The oceans derive almost all of their thermal energy from the sun, and none from infrared radiation in the atmosphere. The thermal energy stored by the oceans is transported globally and released after a range of different time periods. The release of thermal energy from the oceans modifies the behaviour of atmospheric circulation, and hence varies climate. Based on ocean behaviour, New Zealand can expect weather patterns similar to those from 1890-1922 and another Little Ice Age may develop this century.

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