Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Multiproxy reconstructions of climate for three sites in the Canadian High Arctic using Cassiope tetragona

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We developed calibration models and reconstructed climate for sites in the central and eastern Canadian High Arctic using dendroclimatological and stable isotope analysis techniques on the dwarf-shrub, Cassiope tetragona. Our results may suggest complex temporal and spatial patterns of climate change in the region over the past century. For sites on Bathurst and Devon Islands, we reconstructed fall mean and June–July mean temperature using multiple linear regression analysis that explained 54 % and 40 % of the variance, respectively. The predictor variables included annual growth, annual production of leaves, flower buds and annual δ¹³C values for the Bathurst Island model, and annual growth and δ¹³C values for the Devon Island model. Both models revealed warmer than average temperatures throughout the mid-20th century, followed by a cooling trend from the early 1960s and mid-1970s at the Devon and Bathurst Island sites, respectively. Temperatures remained cool until the early 1980s and then increased until 1998/1999 at both sites. Our models are supported by other paleoclimate proxies and the instrumental record from the Canadian Arctic. For sites on Axel Heiberg and Bathurst Islands, we developed models using multivariate regresssion for February and March total precipitation that explained 44 % and 42 % of the variance, respectively. The Axel Heiberg Island model included annual production of flowers and flower buds, as well as annual δ¹³C values as predictor variables, while the Bathurst Island model only included the annual production of flower buds as a predictor. Both models showed lower than average precipitation from the early to mid-1900s, followed by increasing precipitation from the late 1980s to 1998/1999. Our precipitation models, supported by instrumental and proxy data, suggest a trend of increasing late-winter/early spring precipitation in the late 20th century. The lack of a single detectable climate signal across the study sites suggests local climate, topography, genetic variation and/or ecological conditions may dictate, in part, site responses and result in a heterogeneous climatescape over space and time. Yet, like other arctic paleoclimate proxies, chronology error and temporal discrepancies may complicate our interpretations. However, comparisons with other arctic proxies and the meteorological record suggest our models have also registered a regional climate signal.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alt BT, Koerner RM, Fisher DA, Bourgeois JC (1985) Arctic climate during the Franklin era, as deduced from ice cores. In: Sutherland PD (ed) The Franklin Era in Canadian Arctic History 1845–1859. Archaeological Surv of Canada Pap 131, pp 69–92

  • Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2004) Impacts of a warming Arctic: Arctic climate impact assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Au R, Tardiff J-C (2007) Allometric relationships and dendroecology of the dwarf shrub Dryas integrifolia near Churchill, subarctic Manitoba. Can J Bot 85:585–597

    Google Scholar 

  • Bär A, Pape R, Bräuning A, Löffler J (2008) Growth-ring variations of dwarf-shrubs reflect regional climate signals in alpine environments rather than topoclimatic differences. J Biogeography 35:625–636

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber VA, Juday GP, Finney BP, Wilmking M (2004) Reconstruction of summer temperatures in interior Alaska from tree-ring proxies: evidence for changing synoptic climate regimes. Clim Change 63:91–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbour MM, Farquhar GD (2000) Relative humidity- and ABA-induced variation in carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of cotton leaves. Plant Cell Environ 23:473–485

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbour MM, Andrews TJ, Farquhar GD (2001) Correlations between oxygen isotope ratios and wood constituents of Quercus and Pinus samples from around the world. Aust J Plant Physiol 28:335–348

    Google Scholar 

  • Beerling DJ (1994) Predicting leaf gas exchange and δ13C responses to the past 30000 years of global environmental change. New Phytol 128:425–433

    Google Scholar 

  • Bekryaev RV, Polyakov IV, Alexeev VA (2010) Role of polar amplification in long-term surface air temperature variations and modern Arctic warming. J Climate 23:3888–3906

    Google Scholar 

  • Bliss LC, Matveyeva NV (1992) Circumpolar arctic vegetation. In: Chapin FS, Jefferies RL, Reynolds JF, Shaver GR, Svoboda J (eds) Arctic ecosystems in a changing climate: an ecophysiological perspective. Academic, San Diego, pp 59–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Blok D, Sass-Klaassen U, Schaepman-Strub G, Heijmans M, Sauren P, Berendse F (2011) What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? Biogeosciences 8:1169–1179

    Google Scholar 

  • Briffa KR (1984) Tree-climate relationships and dendroclimatological reconstruction in the British Isles. Dissertation, University of East Anglia

  • Briffa KR, Jones PD, Pilcher JR, Hughes MK (1988) Reconstructing summer temperatures in northern Fennoscandinavia back to A.D. 1700 using tree-ring data from Scots pine. Arct Antarct Alp Res 20:385–394

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronken Eidesen P, Carlsen T, Molau U, Brochmann C (2007) Repeatedly out of Beringia: Cassiope tetragona embraces the Arctic. J Biogeography 34:1559–1574

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks JR, Flanagan LB, Ehleringer JR (1998) Responses of boreal conifers to climate fluctuations: indicators from tree-ring widths and carbon isotope analyses. Can J Forest Res 28:524–533

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown R, Deksen C, Wang L (2010) A multi-dataset analysis of variability and change in Arctic spring snow cover extent. J Geophys Res 115:D16111

    Google Scholar 

  • Callaghan TV, Carlsson BA, Tyler NJC (1989) Historical records of climate-related growth in Cassiope tetragona from the Arctic. J Ecol 77:823–837

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapin FS III (1983) Nutrient allocation and responses to defoliation in tundra plants. Arc, Antarc and Alp Res 12:553–563

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapin FS III, Sturm M, Serreze MC et al (2005) Role of land-surface changes in Arctic summer warming. Science 310:657–660

    Google Scholar 

  • Chylek P, Folland CK, Lesins G, Dubey MK, Wang M-Y (2009) Arctic air temperature change amplification and the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Geophys Res Lett 36:L14801

    Google Scholar 

  • Comiso JC, Parkinson CL, Gersten R, Stock L (2008) Accelerated decline in the Arctic sea ice cover. Geophy Res Lett 35: doi:10.1029/2007GL031972

  • Cook ER (1985) A time series analysis approach to tree-ring standardization. Dissertation, University of Arizona

  • Cook ER, Briffa K (1990) Data analysis. In: Cook ER, Kariukstis LA (eds) Methods of dendrochronology: applications in the environmental sciences. Kluwer, Boston, pp 97–162

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook ER, Briffa K, Jones PD (1994) Spatial regression methods in dendroclimatology: a review and comparison of two techniques. Int J Climatol 14:379–402

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook TL, Bradley RS, Stoner JS, Francus P (2009) Five thousand years of sediment transfer in a high arctic watershed recorded in annually laminated sediments from Lower Murray Lake, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. J Paleolimnology 41:77–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Cropper JP (1982) Comment on response functions. In: Hughes MK et al (eds) Climate from tree rings. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 30–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley TJ (2000) Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years. Science 289:270–277

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Arrigo RD, Jacoby GC (1993) Secular trends in high northern latitude temperature reconstructions based on tree-rings. Clim Change 25:163–177

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Arrigo RD, Jacoby G, Buckley B, Sakulich J, Frank D, Wilson R, Curtis A, Anchukaitis K (2009) Tree growth and inferred temperature variability at the North American Arctic treeline. Global Planet Change 65:71–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Doesken NJ, Robinson DA (2009) The challenge of snow measurements. In: Dupigny-Giroux L-A, Mock CJ (eds) Historical climate variability and impacts in North America. Springer Science, Berlin, pp 251–273

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas MSV, Smol JP, Blake W Jr (1994) Diatom evidence of post 18th century environmental change in High Arctic ecosystems. Science 266:416–419

    Google Scholar 

  • Edlund SA (1990) Vegetation: Central Queen Elizabeth Islands, Northwest Territories. Geological Surv of Canada, Map 1755A

  • Edlund SA, Alt BT (1989) Regional congruence of vegetation and summer climate patterns in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Northwest Territories, Canada. Arctic 42:3–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards TWD, Fritts P (1986) Assessing meteoric water composition and relative humidity from 18O and 2H in wood cellulose: Paleoclimatic implications for southern Ontario, Canada. Appl Geochem 1:715–723

    Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Wilson RJS, Frank DC, Mober A, Wanner H, Luterbacher J (2005) Climate: past ranges and future changes. Quaternary Science Rev 24:2164–2166

    Google Scholar 

  • Farquhar GD, O’Leary MH, Berry JA (1982) On the relationship between carbon isotope discrimination and intercellular carbon dioxide concentration in leaves. Aust J Plant Physiol 9:121–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher DA, Koerner RM (1994) Signal and noise in four ice-core records from the Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, Canada: details of the last millennium for stable isotopes, melt and solid conductivity. The Holocene 4:113–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher DA, Koerner RM, Reeh N (1995) Holocene climatic records from Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, NWT, Canada. The Holocene 5:19–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley JA, Kutzbach JE, Coe MT, Levis S (1994) Feedbacks between climate and boreal forests during the Holocene epoch. Nature 371:52–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Forbes B, Fauria MM, Zetterberg P (2009) Russian Arctic warming and ‘greening’ are closely tracked by tundra shrub willows. Glob Change Biol 16:1542–1554

    Google Scholar 

  • Francey RJ, Farquhar GD (1982) An explanation of 13C/12C variations in tree rings. Nature 297:28–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis JA, Hunter E (2006) New insight into the disappearing Arctic sea ice. EOS Trans Am Geophys Union 87:509–511

    Google Scholar 

  • Francus P, Bradley RS, Abbott MB, Patridge W, Keimig F (2002) Paleoclimate studies of minerogenic sediments using annually resolved textural parameters. Geophys Res Lett 29:1998. doi:10.1029/2002GL015082

  • Friedli H, Lotscher H, Oeschger H, Siegenthaler U, Stauffer B (1986) Ice core record of the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2 in the past two centuries. Nature 324:237–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritts HC (1976) Tree rings and climate. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagen MH, McCarroll D, Edouard J-L (2004) Latewood width, maximum density and stable carbon isotope ratios of pine as climate indicators in a dry subalpine environment, in the French Alps. Arc, Antarc and Alp Res 36:166–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagen MH, McCarroll D, Edouard J-L (2006) Combining ring width, density and stable carbon isotope proxies to enhance the climate signal in tree-rings: an example from the southern French Alps. Clim Change 78:363–379

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagen MH, McCarroll C, Loader NJ, Robertson I (2011) Stable isotopes in dendroclimatology: moving beyond ‘potential’. In: Hughes MK, Swetnam TW, Diaz HF (eds) Dendroclimatology: progress and Prospects. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagen MH, McCarroll C, Loader NJ, Roberston I, Jalkanen R, Anchukaitis KJ (2007) Exorcising the ‘segment length curse’: summer temperature reconstruction since A.D. 1640 using non-detrended stable carbon isotope ratios from pine trees in northern Finland. The Holocene 17:435–446

    Google Scholar 

  • Gajewski K, Hamilton PB, McNeely R (1997) A high resolution proxy-climate record from an arctic lake with annually-laminated sediments on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. J Paleolimnology 17:215–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillett NP et al (2008) Attribution of polar warming to human influence. Nature Geosci 1:750–754

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould WA, Edlund S, Zoltai S, Raynolds M, Walker DA, Maier H (2002) Canadian Arctic vegetation mapping. Int J Rem Sens 23:4597–4609

    Google Scholar 

  • Graversen RG, Mauritsen T, Tjernstrom M, Kallen E, Svensson G (2008) Vertical structure of recent Arctic warming. Nature 451:53–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Hallinger M, Manthey M, Wilmking M (2010) Establishing a missing link: warm summers and winter snow cover promote shrub expansion into alpine tundra in Scandinavia. New Phytol 186:890–899

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen J, Sato M, Ruedy R, Lo R, Lea DW, Medina-Elizade M (2006) Global temperature change. Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA 103:14288–14293

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardy DR, Bradley RS (1997) Climate change in Nunavut. Geosci Can 23:217–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Havström M, Callaghan TV, Jonasson S (1993) Differential growth responses of Cassiope tetragona, an arctic dwarf-shrub, to environmental perturbations among three contrasting high- and subarctic sites. Oikos 66:389–402

    Google Scholar 

  • Havström M, Callaghan TV, Jonasson S, Svoboda J (1995) Little Ice Age temperature estimated by growth and flowering differences between subfossil and extant shoots of Cassiope tetragona, an arctic heather. Funct Ecol 9:650–654

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinkler J (2005) From digital cameras to large scale sea-ice dynamics—a snow ecosystem perspective. Dissertation, University of Copenhagen

  • Hinzman LD, Bettex ND, Bolton WR et al (2005) Evidence and implications of recent climate change in northern Alaska and other arctic regions. Clim Change 72:251–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes RL (1983) Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement. Tree-Ring Bull 43:69–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughen KA, Overpeck JT, Anderson RF (2000) Recent warming in a 500-year paleotemperature record from varved sediments, Upper Soper Lake, Baffin Island, Canada. The Holocene 10:9–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Hultén E (1968) Flora of Alaska and neighboring territories. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurrell JW (1995) Decadal trends in the North Atlantic oscillation: regional temperatures and precipitation. Science 269:676–679

    Google Scholar 

  • Johannessen OM, Bengtsson L, Miles MW, Kuzimina SI, Semenov VA, Aledseev CV, Magumyi AP, Zakharov VF, Vobylev LP, Pettersson LH, HasselmannK CHP (2004) Arctic climate change: observed and modeled temperature and sea-ice variability. Tellus 56A:328–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone JF (1995) Responses of Cassiope tetragona, a high arctic evergreen dwarf shrub to variations in growing season temperature and growing season length at Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island. Thesis, University of British Columbia

  • Johnstone JF, Henry GHR (1997) Retrospective analysis of growth and reproduction in Cassiope tetragona and relations to climate in the Canadian High Arctic. Arc and Alp Res 29:459–469

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman DS, Schneider DP, McKay NP, Ammann CM, Bradley RS, Briffa KR, Miller GH, Otto-Bliesner BL, Overpeck JT, Vinther BM, Arctic Lakes 2K Project Members (2009) Recent warming reverses long-term Arctic cooling. Science 325:1236–1239

    Google Scholar 

  • Koerner RM (1977) Devon Island ice cap: core stratigraphy and paleoclimate. Science 196:15–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Labine C (1994) Meteorology and climatology of Alexandra Fiord lowland. In: Svoboda J, Freedman B (eds) Ecology of a Polar Desert Oasis: Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island. Captus, Toronto, pp 23–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamoureux S, Gilbert R (2004) A 750-yr record of autumn snowfall and temperature variability and winter storminess recorded in the varved sediments of Bear Lake, Devon Island, Arctic Canada. Quaternary Res 6:134–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Leavitt SW, Long A (1984) Sampling strategy for stable carbon isotope analysis of tree rings in pine. Nature 311:145–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Levanĭc T, Eggertsson O (2008) Climatic effects on birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) growth in Fnjoskadalur valley, northern Iceland. Dendrochronologia 25:135–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Levis S, Foley JA, Pollard D (2000) Large-scale vegetation feedbacks on a doubled CO2 climate. J Climate 13:1313–1325

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang E, Eckstein D (2009) Dendrochronological potential of the alpine shrub Rhododendron nivale on the south-eastern Tibetan Plateau. Ann Bot 104:665–670

    Google Scholar 

  • Ljung GM, Box GEP (1978) On a measure of lack of fit in time series models. Biometricka 65:297–303

    Google Scholar 

  • Loader NJ, Robertson I, McCarroll D (2003) Comparison of stable carbon isotope ratios in the whole wood, cellulose and lignin of oak tree rings. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 196:395–407

    Google Scholar 

  • Loader NJ, McCarroll D, Gagen M, Robertson I, Jalkanen R (2007) Extracting climatic information from stable isotopes in tree rings. In: Dawson T, Siegwolf R (eds) Isotopes as indicator of environmental change. Elsevier, The Netherlands, pp 27–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Loader NJ, Santillo PM, Woodman-Ralph JP et al (2008) Multiple stable isotopes from trees in southwestern Scotland and the potential for stable isotope dendroclimatology in maritime climatic regions. Chem Geol 252:62–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Luckman BH (1997) Developing a proxy climate record for the last 300 years in the Canadian Rockies—some problems and opportunities. Clim Change 36:455–476

    Google Scholar 

  • Mack MC, Schuur EAG, Bret-Harte MS, Shaver GR, Chapin FS (2004) Ecosystem carbon storage in arctic tundra reduced by long-term nutrient fertilization. Nature 431:440–443

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell JB (1981) Climatic regions of the Canadian Arctic Islands. Arctic 34:225–240

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarroll D, Pawellek F (2001) Stable carbon isotope ratios of Pinus sylvestris from northern Finland and the potential for extracting a climate signal from long Fennoscandian chronologies. The Holocene 11:517–526

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarroll D, Loader NJ (2004) Stable isotopes in tree-rings. Quaternary Sci Rev 23:771–801

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarroll D, Jalkanen R, Hicks S et al (2003) Multi-proxy dendroclimatology: a pilot study in northern Finland. The Holocene 13:831–841

    Google Scholar 

  • Mekis E, Hogg WD (1999) Rehabilitation and analysis of Canadian daily precipitation time series. Atmosphere-Ocean 37:53–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Meko DM (1997) Dendroclimatic reconstruction with time varying subsets of tree indices. J Climate 10:687–696

    Google Scholar 

  • Meteorological Service of Canada (2009) http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca. Accessed 30 December 2010

  • Michellutti N, Wolfe AP, Vinebrooke RD, Rivard B, Briner JP (2005) Recent primary production increases in arctic lakes. Geophys Res Lett 32:L19715

    Google Scholar 

  • Molau U (1996) Climatic impacts on flowering, growth and vigour in an arctic-alpine cushion plant, Diapensia lapponica, under different snow cover regimes. Ecological Bull 45:210–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Molau U (1997) Responses to natural climatic variation and experimental warming in two tundra plant species with contrasting life forms: Cassiope tetragona and Rannuculus nivalis. Glob Change Biol 3:97–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Molau U (2001) Tundra plant responses to experimental and natural temperature changes. Memoirs of Natl Inst of Polar Res Spec Issue 54:445–466

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore JJ, Hughen KA, Miller GH, Overpeck JT (2001) Little Ice Age recorded in summer temperature reconstruction from varved sediments of Donard Lake, Baffin Island, Canada. J Paleolimnology 25:503–517

    Google Scholar 

  • National Research Council (2007) Surface temperature reconstructions for the last 2,000 years. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C

    Google Scholar 

  • Nams MLN, Freedman B (1987) Phenology and resource allocation in high arctic evergreen dwarf shrub, Cassiope tetragona. Holarctic Ecol 10:128–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Neter J, Kutner MH, Nachtsheim CJ, Wasserman W (1996) Applied linear statistical models. Irwin, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogi M, Tachibana Y, Yamazaki K (2003) Impact of the wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on the summertime atmospheric circulation. Geophys Res Lett 30:1704

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogi M, Yamazaki K, Tachibana Y (2004) The summertime annular mode in the Northern Hemisphere and its linkages to the winter mode. J Geophys Res 109:D20114

    Google Scholar 

  • Overpeck J, Hughen K, Hardy D et al (1997) Arctic environmental change of the last four centuries. Science 278:1251–1256

    Google Scholar 

  • PASW Statistics 17.0 (2009)

  • Paterson WSB, Koerner RM, Fisher D et al (1977) An oxygen-isotope climatic record from Devon Island ice cap, Arctic Canada. Nature 266:508–511

    Google Scholar 

  • Peros MC, Gajewski K (2009) Pollen-based reconstructions of late Holocene climate from the central and western Canadian Arctic. J Paleoclimatology 41:161–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Polunin N (1948) Botany of the Canadian Eastern Arctic, Part III. Vegetation and Ecology. Bulletin No. 104, Biology Series, No. 32. Nat History Mus of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

  • Przybylak R (2002) Variability of total solid precipitation in the Canadian Arctic from 1950–1995. Int J Climatol 22:394–420

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn PK, Shaw G, Andrews E, Dutton EG, Ruoho-Airola T, Gong SL (2007) Arctic haze: current trends and knowledge gaps. Tellus 59B:99–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Rayback SA, Henry GHR (2005) Dendrochronological potential of the arctic dwarf-shrub, Cassiope tetragona. Tree-Ring Res 61:43–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Rayback SA, Henry GHR (2006) Reconstruction of summer temperature for a Canadian High Arctic site from retrospective analysis of the dwarf-shrub, Cassiope tetragona. Arc, Antarc and Alp Res 38:228–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Rayback SA, Lini A, Berg, DL (2010) Multiple climate signals characterize Cassiope mertensiana chronologies for a site on Mount Rainier, Washington, USA. Phys Geogr 31:79–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Rayback SA, Lini A, Henry GHR (2011) Spatial variability of the dominant climate signal in Cassiope tetragona from sites in Arctic Canada. Arctic 64:98–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Rixen C, Schwoerer C, Wipf S (2010) Winter climate change at different temporal scales in Vaccinium myrtillus, an Arctic and alpine dwarf shrub. Polar Res 29:85–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson I, Rolfe J, Switsur VR, Carter AHC, Hall M, Barker A, Waterhouse AC (1997) Signal strength and climate relationships in 13C/12C ratios of tree ring cellulose from oak in southwest Finland. Geophys Res Lett 24:1487–1490

    Google Scholar 

  • Roden JS, Lin G, Ehleringer JR (2000) A mechanistic model for interpretation of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes ratios in tree ring cellulose. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 64:21–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozema J, Weijers S, Broekman KR et al (2009) Annual growth of Cassiope tetragona as a proxy for Arctic climate: developing correlative and experimental transfer functions to reconstruct past summer temperature on a millennial time scale. Glob Change Biol 15:1703–1715

    Google Scholar 

  • Saurer M, Siegenthaler U, Schweingruber F (1995) The climate-carbon isotope relationship in tree-rings and the significance of site conditions. Tellus B Chem Phys Meteorol 47:320–330

    Google Scholar 

  • Schleser GH, Helle G, Lucke A, Vos H (1999) Isotope signals as climate proxies: the role of transfer functions in the study of terrestrial archives. Quaternary Sci Rev 18:927–943

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt NM, Baittinger C, Forchhammer MC (2006) Reconstructing century-long snow regimes using estimates of high arctic Salix arctica radial growth. Arc, Antarc and Alp Res 38:257–262

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt NM, Baittinger C, Kollmann J, Forchhammer MC (2010) Consistent dendrochronological reseponse of the dioecious Salix arctica to variation in local snow precipitation across gender and vegetation types. Arc, Antarc and Alp Res 42:471–475

    Google Scholar 

  • Schweiger AJ, Lindsay RW, Vavrus S, Francis JA (2008) Relationship between Arctic sea ice cover and clouds during autumn. J Clim 21:4799–4810

    Google Scholar 

  • Screen JA, Simmonds I (2010) The central role of diminishing sea ice in recent Arctic temperature amplification. Nature 464:1334–1337

    Google Scholar 

  • Serreze MC, Francis J (2006) The Arctic amplification debate. Clim Change 76:241–264

    Google Scholar 

  • Serreze MC, Barry RG (2011) Processes and impacts of Arctic amplification: a research synthesis. Global Planet Change 77:85–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Serreze MC, Holland MM, Stroeve J (2007) Perspectives of the Arctic’s shrinking ice cover. Science 315:1533–1536

    Google Scholar 

  • Serreze MC, Barrett AP, Stroeve JC, Kindig DM, Holland MM (2009) The emergence of surface-based Arctic amplification. Cryosphere 3:11–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Shindell D, Faluvegi G (2009) Climate response to regional radiative forcing during the twentieth century. Nat Geosci 2:294–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Shu Y, Feng X, Gazis C, Anderson D, Faiia AM, Tang K, Ettl GJ (2005) Relative humidity recorded in tree rings: a study along a precipitation gradient in the Olympic Mountains, Washington, USA. Geochimica et Comochimica Acta 69:791–799

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmonds I, Keay K (2009) Extraordinary September Arctic sea ice reductions and their relationship with storm behavior over 1979–2008. Geophy Res Lett 36:L19715

    Google Scholar 

  • Smol JP, Douglas MSV (2007a) Crossing the final ecological threshold in high Arctic ponds. Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA 104:12395–12397

    Google Scholar 

  • Smol JP, Douglas MSV (2007b) From controversy to consensus: making the case for recent climate change in the Arctic using lake sediments. Front Ecol Environ 5:466–474

    Google Scholar 

  • Smol JP, Wolfe AP, Birks HJB et al (2005) Climate driven regime shifts in the biological communities of arctic lakes. Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA 102:4397–4402

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon S et al (eds) (2007) Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Stokes MA, Smiley TL (1996) An introduction to tree-ring dating. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Stroeve J, Holland MM, Meier W, Scambos T, Serreze MC (2007) Arctic sea ice decline: faster than forecast. Geophy Res Lett 34:L09501

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas EK, Axford Y, Briner JP (2008) Rapid 20th century environmental change on northeastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada inferred from a multi-proxy lacustrine record. J Paleolimnology 40:507–517

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas EK, Briner JP (2009) Climate of the past millennium inferred from varved proglacial lake sediments on northeast Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. J Paleolimnology 41:209–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson DWJ, Wallace JM (1998) The Arctic oscillation signature in wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields. Geophys Res Lett 25:1297–1300

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson DWJ, Wallace JM (2001) Regional climate impacts of the Northern Hemisphere Annular mode. Science 293:85–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson DWJ, Wallace JM, Hergerl GC (2000) Annual modes in the extratropical circulation. Part II: trends. J or Clim 13:1028–1036

    Google Scholar 

  • Tranquillini W (1979) Physiological ecology of the alpine timberline: tree existence at high altitudes with special reference to the European Alps. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Treydte K, Schleser GH, Schweingruber FH, Winiger M (2001) The climatic significance of δ13C in subalpine spruce (Lötschental, Swiss Alps): a case study with respect to altitude, exposure and soil moisture. Tellus Ser B 53:593–611

    Google Scholar 

  • Treydte K, Frank D, Esper J et al (2007) Signal strength and climate calibration of a European tree-ring isotope network. Geophys Res Lett 34:L24302

    Google Scholar 

  • Vibe C (1967) Arctic animals in relation to climatic fluctuations. Meddelelser om Grønland 170:1–227

    Google Scholar 

  • Vincent LA, Zhang X, Bonsal BR, Hogg WD (2002) Homogenization of daily temperatures over Canada. J Climate 15:1322–1334

    Google Scholar 

  • Vinther BM, Andersen KK, Jones PD, Briffa KA, Cappelen J (2006) Extending Greenland temperature records into the late eighteenth century. J Geophys Res 111:D11105

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel J (1980) Fractionation of carbon isotopes during photosynthesis. Sitzungberichte der Heidelberger Akamemie der Wissenschaften Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse Jahrgang, 3. Abhandlung. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  • Warming E (1908) The structure and biology of arctic flowering plants I. Ericineae (Ericaceae, Pyrolaceae). I. Morphology and biology. Comm for Scientific Res in Greenland, Copenhagen

  • Weijers S, Broekman R, Rozema J (2010) Dendrochronology in the High Arctic: July air temperature reconstructed from annual shoot length growth of the circumarctic dwarf shrub Cassiope tetragona. Quaternary Sci Rev 29:3831–3842

    Google Scholar 

  • Welker JM, Heaton THE, Spiro B, Callaghan TV (1995) Indirect effects of winter climate on the δ13C and the δD characteristics of annual growth segments in the long-live arctic plant Cassiope tetragona. Paleoclimate Res 15:105–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Welker JM, Rayback SA, Henry GHR (2005) Isotopes (δ18O &δ 13C) in Cassiope tetragona annual growth increments record changes in the Arctic and North Atlantic oscillation. Glob Change Biol 11:997–1002

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigley TM, Briffa KR, Jones PD (1984) On the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. J Clim Appl Meteorol 23:201–213

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe AP (2003) Diatom community responses to late-Holocene climatic variability, Baffin Island, Canada: a comparison of numerical approaches. The Holocene 13:29–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodcock H, Bradley RS (1994) Salix arctica (Pall.): its potential for dendroclimatological studies in the High Arctic. Dendrochronologia 12:11–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Young GHF, McCarroll D, Loader NJ, Kirchefer AJ (2010) A 500-year record of summer near-ground solar radiation from tree-ring stable carbon isotopes. The Holocene 20:315–324

    Google Scholar 

  • Zalatan R, Gajewski K (2006) Dendrochronological potential of Salix alaxensis from the Kuujjua River area, western Canadian Arctic. Tree-Ring Res 62:75–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang X, Vincent LA, Hogg WD, Niitsoo A (2000) Temperature and precipitation trends in Canada during the 20th century. Atmosphere-Ocean 38:395–429

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank David Berg, Katie Breen, Anne Gunn, Alan Howard, Maartje Melchoirs, and Michael Svoboda for field, laboratory and data analysis assistance. We also thank the Polar Continental Shelf Project, the Canadian Coast Guard, and the Swedish Polar Secretariat (Tundra Northwest 1999) for logistical support, as well as the Meteorological Service of Canada and Lucie Vincent of the Climate Research Division, contributors to the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology (Boulder, CO, USA), and Niels Schmidt for data used in this study. We gratefully acknowledge project funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, ArcticNet Network of Centres of Excellence of Canada, and the Swedish Polar Secretariat to GHRH, the University of Vermont’s College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Fund to SAR and AL, and the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Research Support Award to SAR. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions that helped to improve this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Vermont, 213 Old Mill Building, 94 University Place, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Shelly A. Rayback

  2. Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Gregory H. R. Henry

  3. Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    Andrea Lini

Authors
  1. Shelly A. Rayback
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gregory H. R. Henry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Andrea Lini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shelly A. Rayback.

Electronic supplementary materials

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

Arctic Canada with the locations of the current study Cassiope tetragona sampling sites (AHI: Axel Heiberg Island; BI: Bathurst Island; DI: Devon Island; triangles), previous C. tetragona sampling sites (CEI: central Ellesmere Island; AF:Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island; triangles) (Rayback and Henry 2005, 2006), and Meteorological Service of Canada weather stations (Eureka, Ellesmere Island; Resolute, Cornwallis Island; Pond Inlet, Baffin Island; circles) (MSC 2009) (Figure reproduced with permission; Rayback et al. 2011). (PDF 219 kb)

Online Resource 2

Ombrothermic diagrams displaying monthly mean temperature (°C, black line) and total precipitation (mm, black columns) for the Eureka (a.), Resolute (b.) and Pond Inlet (c.) High Arctic meteorological stations in Nunavut, Canada. Means and totals were calculated over a 30-year period (1971–2000) (Meteorological Service of Canada 2011). (PDF 164 kb)

Online Resource 3

Cassiope tetragona chronology characteristics for three sites in the Canadian High Arctic. (PDF 119 kb)

Online Resource 4

Correlations between growth, reproduction and δ¹³C chronologies and selected climate variables. Correlations shown below reflect the only significant relationships among the chronologies and climate variables tested. (PDF 156 kb)

Online Resource 5

Comparison of the Axel Heiberg Island (AHI) February total precipitation model (this study) (a.) and the Bathurst Island (BI) March total precipitation model (this study) (b.) with a Salix arctica-based reconstruction of percent snow cover (mean percentage coverage below 600 m. a.s.l. on 10 June) for a site in the Zackenberg Valley, northeastern Greenland (ZVG) (Schmidt et al. 2006) (c.). (PDF 64 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rayback, S.A., Henry, G.H.R. & Lini, A. Multiproxy reconstructions of climate for three sites in the Canadian High Arctic using Cassiope tetragona . Climatic Change 114, 593–619 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0431-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0431-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation