Chronology of the last deglaciation and Holocene environmental changes in the Sisimiut area,SW Greenland based on lacustrine records

The Sisimiut area was deglaciated in the early Holocene, c. 11 cal. ka BP. At that time the lowlands were inundated by the sea, but the isostatic rebound surpassed the global sea‐level rise, and the lowlands emerged from the sea. The pioneer vegetation in the area consisted of mosses and herbaceous plants. The oldest remains of woody plants (Empetrum nigrum) are dated to c. 10.3 cal. ka BP, and remains of Salix herbacea and Harrimanella hypnoides are found in slightly younger sediments. The maximum occurrence of statoblasts of the bryozoan Plumatella repens from c. 10 to 4.5 cal. ka BP probably reflects the Holocene thermal maximum, which is also indicated in geochemical proxies of the lake sediments. A maximum in organic matter accumulation in one of the three studied lakes c. 3 cal. ka BP can probably be ascribed to a late Holocene short‐duration temperature maximum or a period of increased aridity. Cenococcum geophilum sclerotia are common in the late Holocene, implying increased soil erosion during the Neoglaciation. A comparison with sediment and macrofossil records from inland shows similar Holocene trends and a similar immigration history. It also reveals that there has been a significant gradient throughout the Holocene, from an oceanic and stable climate at the outer coast to a more continental and unstable climate with warmer summers and drier conditions close to the margin of the Greenland ice sheet, where the buffer capacity of the sea is lower.     

A bridge over troubled water: A contextual analysis of social vulnerability to climate change in a riverine landscape in south-east Norway

Local communities in the Gudbrandsdalen region in Norway are increasingly exposed to climate-induced hazards such as floods and landslides. A core question is how community members respond to climate change and what factors contribute to more resilient communities. The authors used a contextual approach to analyze data from semi-structured interviews along five dimensions. In Gaustad Muncipality they found that individuals’ motivation to adapt to climate change depended largely on subjective values such as identity, place attachment, cultural values, and social networks among individuals, which means it is crucial that strategic plans for adaptation to climate change at different policy levels are experienced as relevant by community members. While the studied community has experienced heavy floods in river systems and streams, little evidence of adaptation was observed. Instead, they appeared to adopt coping strategies. Landowners may have limited incentives to adapt to climate change due to contraproductive policy measures such as economic compensation for direct losses without requiring improved practices. Effective adaptation to climate change on the local level is likely to require making compensation mechanisms contingent upon landowners showing willingness to change from coping to adaptive practices, as well as a contextualized approach integrating local and scientific forms of knowledge.     

Comment on ‘Clinoform quantification for assessing the effects of external forcing on continental margin development’

The application of geometric modeling to shelf‐margin stratigraphy has the potential to constrain interpretations of external forcings on margin development. Here we apply such a model to the Ebro margin in order to complement the analysis of Kertznus & Kneller (2009) . Our results suggest that increased mass wasting in the Pleistocene was unlikely to have been a factor in the observed long‐term shelf‐edge trajectory, and that the trajectory can be explained by the interaction of sediment flux, relative sea‐level rise, and basin shape.     

Permafrost in Svalbard: a review of research history, climatic background and engineering challenges

This paper reviews permafrost in High Arctic Svalbard, including past and current research, climatic background, how permafrost is affected by climatic change, typical permafrost landforms and how changes in Svalbard permafrost may impact natural and human systems. Information on active layer dynamics, permafrost and ground ice characteristics and selected periglacial features is summarized from the recent literature and from unpublished data by the authors. Permafrost thickness ranges from less than 100 m near the coasts to more than 500 m in the highlands. Ground ice is present as rock glaciers, as ice-cored moraines, buried glacial ice, and in pingos and ice wedges in major valleys. Engineering problems of thaw-settlement and frost-heave are described, and the implications for road design and construction in Svalbard permafrost areas are discussed.     

Meteorological Observations 2002 at the Arctic Station,Qeqertarsuaq (69°15'N), Central West Greenland

An automatic meteorological station has been operating at the Arctic Station (69°15'N, 53°31'W) in West Greenland since 1990. This paper summarises meteorological parameters during 2002, including snow cover, ground temperatures and active layer development, and air temperatures at the Station during the last 12 years are compared to large scale trends during the last century.

A compilation of 93 sedimentation rate determinations based on ²¹⁰Pb dating has been carried out for the North Sea-Baltic Sea transition area from a database containing 165 determinations carried out by Danish institutions. In the depositional parts of the area sedimentation rates generally range 25–6403 g m^?2 y^?1. An extreme rate of 13351 g m^?2 y^?1 is observed on a station in the Skagerrak. Sedimentation rates significantly increase with depth indicating that the Skagerrak and northern parts of the Kattegat as well as the deep basins in the Baltic Sea act as depocentres for fine-grained sediments. Apparently, sedimentation rates have increased in recent years.     

Scenarios on future land changes in the West African Sahel

In an attempt to anticipate possible futures of drylands of West Africa in the face of rapid socio-economic and environmental changes, we developed four scenarios based on recent survey data, the literature and our knowledge of the region. The four scenarios are inspired by those developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: (1) ‘downward spiral’ characterized by rapid climate change, expansion of agriculture and chaotic urban growth; (2) ‘integrated economy’ with integrated land management, food production for local markets and rural–urban exchanges; (3) ‘open doors’ characterized by large-scale out-migrations, land grabbing by foreign companies and development aid and (4) ‘climate change mitigation’ with an increase in biofuel crops, land management for carbon capture and development of off-farm activities. We conclude that the Sahel region is most likely moving away from being a highly climate-dependent region based on agriculture towards a more open and diversified economy. West African countries have to find a balance between the new opportunities and risks created by economic globalization.     

A Compilation of Radiocarbon Dates from Disko Bugt,Central West Greenland/Meteorological Observations in 1996 at the Arctic Station,Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn), Central West Greenland/A Discussion on Pingos in Mellemfjord,Disko, Central West Greenland/Open System Pingos in Mellemfjord,Disko, Central West Greenland: A Reply to Gurney and Worsley

188 new and previously published radiocarbon dates on Holocene material from Disko Bugt, central West Greenland, are presented together with relevant informations (laboratory number, place name, dated material, geografic coordinates, altitude and δ¹³C-value) about the dates.

In October 1990 an automatic weather station was established at the Arctic station (65 °15′N,53 °31′W), Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn), Central West Greenland. The Station register parameters each 20 min., and the parameters have been described in an earlier paper in this journal by Nielsen et al. (1995). The present paper summarises main points of the climate during 1996.

Open system, or more correctly, hydraulic pingos, are genetically poorly understood. A continuing problem concerns their need for a perennial groundwater supply (intra- or sub-permafrost). This has to be maintained despite the existence of continuous permafrost in many areas where they are located. Recent work on Disko Island has suggested a new type of hydraulic pingo developing only in a “marsh environment”. It is argued that the marsh setting is not relevant to the formation of these features and that they are simply hydraulic pingos.

Abstract

A group of marsh initiated open system pingo remnants from the Iterdlagssûp kûgssua valley mouth, in Mellemfjord, Disko Island, Central West Greenland was described in Christiansen (1995). Gurney and Worsley (1997) state that the location of this group of pingo remnants in the Iterdlagssûp kûgssua valley mouth is of no relevance to their genesis, and that they presumably were the result of an assumed late Holocene sea level regression, causing permafrost to be established in the valley bottom. In this reply the arguments by Gurney and Worsley (1997) on the Iterdlagssûp kûgssua valley pingos are commented, and it is argued by way of sea level information, frost penetration and water supply that the special setting must indeed have caused pingo initiation and growth. Furthermore, the area has experienced a relative sea level rise during the late Holocene.     

Continuity and change: Spatiotemporal land use dynamics on Bellona Island, Solomon Islands

Traditional agricultural land use systems in the humid tropics of the Southwest Pacific are, as elsewhere, affected by globalization processes. This paper analyzes the directions of change in the land use system of Bellona, a small outer island in the Solomon Islands. We focus on the human–environmental interaction that shapes land use patterns and practices in the context of theoretical lines of thought concerning intensification of agricultural systems in the tropics. Aerial photography from 1966 and satellite imagery from 2006 in conjunction with studies from the 1960s and a contemporary household survey reveal only minor changes in the agricultural system. Land use and land cover dynamics are related to agricultural strategies, demographic factors, institutional actors as well as biophysical drivers or constraints. Local agricultural production still contributes significantly to local subsistence but imported food has also become a major food source. Hence, land use has become partially disconnected from the local population pressure and therefore remains relatively stable while the larger livelihood portfolio has undergone significant diversification. At present, the agricultural system is a supplement to a range of strategies supporting the increasing number of people on the island. This explains why land use patterns continue relatively unchanged while livelihood and food supply strategies have changed.