Paleolimnology of the middle and high Canadian Arctic

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to complement, rather than duplicate, previous reviews of arctic paleolimnology (Smol and Douglas 1996; Douglas and Smol 1999), paleoclimatology (Ovenden 1988; Bradley 1990), and developments in the application of paleolimnological techniques to the reconstruction of climate change (Smol and Cumming 2000). Our approach is to first provide a detailed environmental overview of this vast region, then a brief history of limnological and paleolimnological research, before assessing regional paleolimnological records from the oldest to youngest deposits. Methodological considerations are limited, since these are covered in separate contributions to this volume. Emphasis is placed on climatic influences on lake development and, consequently, on demonstrating the utility and limitations of paleolimnology in the generation of proxy paleoclimate data. In many ways, this is the most pressing agenda for paleoenvironmental research in the high latitudes, given (a) the relatively poor spatial coverage of available data by comparison to temperate regions, and (b) the acknowledged sensitivity of the Arctic to climate change, borne out of its intimate linkage to ocean circulation, atmospheric feedback mechanisms involving snow and ice cover, and biospheric modulation of greenhouse gas concentrations.