Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ancient Plant Dna Reveals High Arctic Greening During The Last Interglacial, Sarah E. Crump, Bianca Fréchette, Matthew Power, Sam Cutler, Gregory De Wet, Martha K. Raynolds, Jonathan H. Raberg, Jason P. Briner, Elizabeth K. Thomas, Julio Sepúlveda, Beth Shapiro, Michael Bunce, Gifford H. Miller

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Summer warming is driving a greening trend across the Arctic, with the potential for large-scale amplification of climate change due to vegetation-related feedbacks [Pearson et al., Nat. Clim. Chang. (3), 673–677 (2013)]. Because observational records are sparse and temporally limited, past episodes of Arctic warming can help elucidate the magnitude of vegetation response to temperature change. The Last Interglacial ([LIG], 129,000 to 116,000 y ago) was the most recent episode of Arctic warming on par with predicted 21st century temperature change [Otto-Bliesner et al., Philos. Trans. A Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. (371), 20130097 (2013) and Post et al., Sci. Adv. …