Spatial and temporal distribution of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet since AD 1900.

The response of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) to changes in temperature during the twentieth century remains contentious, largely owing to difficulties in estimating the spatial and temporal distribution of ice mass changes before 1992, when Greenland-wide observations first became available. The only previous estimates of change during the twentieth century are based on empirical modelling and energy balance modelling. Consequently, no observation-based estimates of the contribution from the GIS to the global-mean sea level budget before 1990 are included in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Here we calculate spatial ice mass loss around the entire GIS from 1900 to the present using aerial imagery from the 1980s. This allows accurate high-resolution mapping of geomorphic features related to the maximum extent of the GIS during the Little Ice Age at the end of the nineteenth century. We estimate the total ice mass loss and its spatial distribution for three periods: 1900-1983 (75.1 ± 29.4 gigatonnes per year), 1983-2003 (73.8 ± 40.5 gigatonnes per year), and 2003-2010 (186.4 ± 18.9 gigatonnes per year). Furthermore, using two surface mass balance models we partition the mass balance into a term for surface mass balance (that is, total precipitation minus total sublimation minus runoff) and a dynamic term. We find that many areas currently undergoing change are identical to those that experienced considerable thinning throughout the twentieth century. We also reveal that the surface mass balance term shows a considerable decrease since 2003, whereas the dynamic term is constant over the past 110 years. Overall, our observation-based findings show that during the twentieth century the GIS contributed at least 25.0 ± 9.4 millimetres of global-mean sea level rise. Our result will help to close the twentieth-century sea level budget, which remains crucial for evaluating the reliability of models used to predict global sea level rise.

Advancing responsible genomic analyses of ancient mollusc shells.

The analysis of the DNA entrapped in ancient shells of molluscs has the potential to shed light on the evolution and ecology of this very diverse phylum. Ancient genomics could help reconstruct the responses of molluscs to past climate change, pollution, and human subsistence practices at unprecedented temporal resolutions. Applications are however still in their infancy, partly due to our limited knowledge of DNA preservation in calcium carbonate shells and the need for optimized methods for responsible genomic data generation. To improve ancient shell genomic analyses, we applied high-throughput DNA sequencing to 27 Mytilus mussel shells dated to ~111-6500 years Before Present, and investigated the impact, on DNA recovery, of shell imaging, DNA extraction protocols and shell sub-sampling strategies. First, we detected no quantitative or qualitative deleterious effect of micro-computed tomography for recording shell 3D morphological information prior to sub-sampling. Then, we showed that double-digestion and bleach treatment of shell powder prior to silica-based DNA extraction improves shell DNA recovery, also suggesting that DNA is protected in preservation niches within ancient shells. Finally, all layers that compose Mytilus shells, i.e., the nacreous (aragonite) and prismatic (calcite) carbonate layers, with or without the outer organic layer (periostracum) proved to be valuable DNA reservoirs, with aragonite appearing as the best substrate for genomic analyses. Our work contributes to the understanding of long-term molecular preservation in biominerals and we anticipate that resulting recommendations will be helpful for future efficient and responsible genomic analyses of ancient mollusc shells.

Data set on sedimentology, palaeoecology and chronology of middle to late pleistocene deposits on the Taimyr Peninsula, Arctic Russia.

This Data in Brief paper contains data (including images) from Quaternary sedimentary successions investigated along the Bol'shaya Balakhnya River and the Luktakh-Upper Taimyra-Logata river system on southern Taimyr Peninsula, NW Siberia (Russia). Marine foraminifera and mollusc fauna composition, extracted from sediment samples, is presented. The chronology (time of deposition) of the sediment successions is reconstructed from three dating methods; (i) radiocarbon dating of organic detritus (from lacustrine/fluvial sediment) and molluscs (marine sediment) as finite ages (usually <42 000 years) or as non-finite ages (>42 000-48 000 years) on samples/sediments beyond the radiocarbon dating limit; (ii) Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating on marine molluscs (up to ages >400 000 years); (iii) Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating, usually effective up to 100-150 0000 years. Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclide (TCN) exposure dating has been applied to boulders resting on top of moraine ridges (Ice Marginal Zones). See (Möller et al., 2019) (doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.04.004) for interpretation and discussion of all data.

A large impact crater beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwest Greenland.

We report the discovery of a large impact crater beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwest Greenland. From airborne radar surveys, we identify a 31-kilometer-wide, circular bedrock depression beneath up to a kilometer of ice. This depression has an elevated rim that cross-cuts tributary subglacial channels and a subdued central uplift that appears to be actively eroding. From ground investigations of the deglaciated foreland, we identify overprinted structures within Precambrian bedrock along the ice margin that strike tangent to the subglacial rim. Glaciofluvial sediment from the largest river draining the crater contains shocked quartz and other impact-related grains. Geochemical analysis of this sediment indicates that the impactor was a fractionated iron asteroid, which must have been more than a kilometer wide to produce the identified crater. Radiostratigraphy of the ice in the crater shows that the Holocene ice is continuous and conformable, but all deeper and older ice appears to be debris rich or heavily disturbed. The age of this impact crater is presently unknown, but from our geological and geophysical evidence, we conclude that it is unlikely to predate the Pleistocene inception of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

A 10,000-year record of Arctic Ocean sea-ice variability--view from the beach.

We present a sea-ice record from northern Greenland covering the past 10,000 years. Multiyear sea ice reached a minimum between ~8500 and 6000 years ago, when the limit of year-round sea ice at the coast of Greenland was located ~1000 kilometers to the north of its present position. The subsequent increase in multiyear sea ice culminated during the past 2500 years and is linked to an increase in ice export from the western Arctic and higher variability of ice-drift routes. When the ice was at its minimum in northern Greenland, it greatly increased at Ellesmere Island to the west. The lack of uniformity in past sea-ice changes, which is probably related to large-scale atmospheric anomalies such as the Arctic Oscillation, is not well reproduced in models. This needs to be further explored, as it is likely to have an impact on predictions of future sea-ice distribution.

Temporal trends of pollution Pb and other metals in east-central Baffin Island inferred from lake sediment geochemistry.

Concentrations and stable isotope ratios of lead (Pb) from lake sediments were used to quantify temporal patterns of anthropogenic Pb pollution in the Clyde River region of Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Surface sediments from eight lakes on eastern Baffin Island and one from northern-most Greenland, spanning a gradient of 20 degrees latitude, showed great variability with respect to Pb concentration and stable isotopic Pb ratios, with little apparent latitudinal trend. To constrain the temporal evolution of regional Pb pollution, a well-dated core from one of the sites, Lake CF8 on east-central Baffin Island, was analyzed geochemically at high stratigraphic resolution. A pronounced decrease in the (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratio occurs in sediments deposited between 1923 and the mid-1970s, likely reflecting alkyl-Pb additives derived from the combustion of fossil fuels at a global scale. A two-component mixing model indicates that 17-26% of the Pb in the labile fraction of sediments deposited in Lake CF8 between 2001 and 2005 is from anthropogenic input. A Pb-Pb co-isotopic plot ((206)Pb/(207)Pb vs.(208)Pb/(206)Pb ratios) of the Lake CF8 time series data indicates multiple possible sources of industrial Pb pollution. Despite widespread reductions in industrial Pb emissions since the 1970s, there is no evidence for attendant reductions of pollution Pb at Lake CF8. Enhanced scavenging from increased primary production as well as changing precipitation rates as climate warms may represent important factors that modulate Pb deposition to Lake CF8, and Arctic lakes elsewhere.