Watershed-scale reconstruction of middle and late Holocene paleoenvironmental changes on Melville Peninsula, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

Arctic regions have heightened sensitivity to climatic changes, however regional scale differences exist in the magnitude and timing of biotic responses. Melville Peninsula in the east-central Canadian Arctic is a transitional area with respect to modern climate, with a continental climate to the west, and more maritime influences to the east. This, and the presence of Thule archaeological sites, make the Peninsula an area of high importance for paleoclimate reconstructions. Lake sediment cores from two adjacent ultra-oligotrophic and very dilute lakes (SP02 and SP04) from interior Melville Peninsula (68°33′N and 83°17′W, 220 m a.s.l.) were analyzed for diatom assemblages (microscopic algae) to track paleoclimatic changes. High magnetic susceptibility, coarse-grained sediments, low organic matter, and lack of diatoms in sediments older than 6000 years BP confirm earlier suggestions of a persistent ice cap on the Peninsula. Peak diatom concentration and biogenic silica, and maximum values for sediment organic matter, between 4400 and 2900 years BP may indicate the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM). The timing of the HTM is similar to that of the Baffin region to the east. Decreases in these proxies, as well as small shifts in diatom assemblages following 2900 years BP indicate the advancement of Neoglacial cooling. The changes of the pre-industrial portion of the last millennium were of smaller magnitude than those of the HTM, but subtle changes in diatom assemblages after 750 years BP may be indicative of the Little Ice Age, the timing of which agrees well with that of Boothia Peninsula to the west. The Anthropocene is well marked in these records, with increases in diatom species richness from a pre-industrial maximum of 28–51 diatom species in the modern assemblage at Lake SP02. Planktonic diatoms appear in the 20th century, signalling profound ecological changes associated with longer ice-free seasons.