Speaker: Yarrow Axford, William Deering Professor in Geological Sciences, Northwestern University

Geologic records of past warm periods reveal how the Earth system responds to warming climate, and thus provide clues about how future warming may unfold. Quaternary scientists have long shown that Greenland and many parts of the Arctic experienced temperatures warmer than present in the early to middle Holocene due to elevated summer insolation – providing a useful natural experiment.

This talk will overview several veins of our recent research using lake sediments to investigate climate and environmental change across Greenland during the Holocene “thermal maximum.” How warm did Greenland get, and importantly, what were the consequences of warming for glaciers and ecosystems?