The findings come from a comprehensive geochemical analysis of sediment samples taken from Farewell Lake in a remote, environmentally sensitive area of Alaska. The work provides the first continuous record of temperature change spanning the last two millennia from that region, they write in the Aug. 21 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Naturally, the big question is whether human activity is causing the current warming," said principal investigator Feng Sheng Hu, a professor of plant biology and geology at the University of Illinois. "This study, however, doesnt provide us with the analytical confidence to answer that directly. We can say that two apparently naturally occurring warm periods existed previously.
"This type of studies offer baseline information on natural climatic variability that will allow us to pursue a variety of climate-related questions,"he said. The study provides a snapshot of 2,000 years of growing seasons. Researchers analyzed lime deposits in the lake samples for their oxygen and carbon isotopic composition as well as trace-element contents. Such material is ideal for geochemical analysis and environmental reconstruction, Hu said.
The researchers concluded that warm climatic conditions occurred in A.D. 0-300 and 850-1200. During these periods, overall conditions were drier than the colder periods, they found. The initial warm period matches documented conditions in Northern Europe and wet weather in the American Southwest. The second warm period corresponds to a period known as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly.
A period of cold, reaching a peak in about A.D. 600, possibly contributed to the demise of the Kache
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Contact: Jim Barlow
b-james3@uiuc.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
20-Aug-2001