Clastic varves and tree-rings offer unique opportunities to decipher various changing paleoclimatic and environmental conditions through the past. The environmental signals they contain can differ greatly from one proxy to the other, but given their common annual resolution, these signals can be isolated, compared and eventually brought together to obtain a clearer picture of local, regional or global environmental changes. This thesis examines three different approaches by which climatic, paleoclimatic and sedimentary time series from northeastern North America can be used as proxies of changing environmental conditions. Using existing and new paleoclimatic records from the eastern Canadian Boreal biome and the Arctic, we show that common variance shared by different independent proxies appears to correspond to an oscillation in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures commonly referred as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and demonstrate that the AMO can be traced back to 1550 in the Canadian Arctic. By comparing historical climate records with an integrated record of North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies, we show, seasonally, the extent of the North Atlantic influence on the eastern and Arctic climate. Our analysis demonstrate the relative importance of the AMO on summer and spring climate in northern Canada as well as its imprint along the St. Lawrence during the winter months. Finally at the local level, using an array of techniques, we investigate the sedimentary history of Temiskaming Lake (Québec/Canada). The recent clastic varve sediments found this lake appear to be the product of three main controls: (1) a significant increase in fluvial input to the lake and accessibility to large supply of fine grained sediments due to historical land use changes; (2) an open, unstable landscape that promotes fluvial erosion and rapid streamflow during snowmelt period; and, (3) highly seasonal river discharge and presence of winter ice cover conditions that ensure the formation of annual structures within the sediments. These conditions have previously not been investigated or reported in the boreal region of North America and these results point to the potential for other recent varve records in areas with suitable lakes and postglacial sediment supplies. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-18 12:22:27.663

This dissertation describes the design and implementation of a computer vision based varve image analysis system. The primary issues covered are software engineering design, varve image calibrations, varve image enhancement, varve Dynamic Spatial Warping (DSW) profile generation, varve core image registration, varve identification, boundary identification and varve thickness measurement. A varve DSW matching algorithm is described to generate DSW profile and register two core images. Wavelet Multiple Resolution Analysis (MRA) is also used to do the core image registrations. By allowing an analyst to concentrate on other research work while the VARVES software analyzes a sample, much of the tedious varve analysis work is reduced, and potentially increasing the productivity. Additionally, by using new computer vision techniques, VARVES system is able to do some varve analysis which was impossible handled manually.

Instrumental and observational records of climate in West Africa suggest that this region may be susceptible to abrupt, decades-long drought events, with potentially catastrophic impacts for the people living in this region. However, because of the dearth of long, continuous and high quality climate records from sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the long-term frequency and persistence of drought events in this region. It is also unclear whether observed 20th century droughts are natural or due to human impacts. In the present study, we use several complementary approaches to develop a high-resolution record of paleoclimatic changes in West Africa from the geological record preserved at Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana.Our results suggest that West Africa has undergone significant hydrologic variations over the last ca. 10,000 years. The dominant influence on hydrologic changes over this interval was changes in northern hemisphere summer insolation and the associated feedback processes acting in the oceans and on land. This led to a more northerly position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and increased precipitation during the early to mid-Holocene. In the late Holocene, a second increase in precipitation occurred along the Guinea coast as a result of the southward migration of the ITCZ from its northern position. This maximum was followed by an abrupt decrease in precipitation at ca. 2.5-3 kyr.The West African monsoon also varies on timescales from millennia to decades. Millennial and century-scale variations appear to be partly paced by changes in solar irradiance, either directly or indirectly. On decadal timescales, variability appears to be dominated by changes in Atlantic sea surface temperatures. The dominant mode is a ca. 40 year oscillation, which in strongly coherent and in phase with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). It is unclear from this study, however, if drought conditions over the last century are related to this multidecadal oscillation, or if they are forced by anthropogenic changes.

名古屋大学年代測定総合研究センターシンポジウム報告

Lake biotic responses to natural climate variability, fire disturbances, and human impacts over the Holocene were studied at two proximate sites in southwestern Québec. Sediments from Lac Noir and Lac Brûlé had annually deposited laminations (varves), enabling for the precise dating of continuous time-series and high-resolution analysis of subfossil diatom assemblages. The Lac Noir (45°46’31”N, 75°8’23”W, 176 m a.s.l.) record spanned ~11000 years of the Holocene. Stratigraphic changes in diatom assemblages of the lake could be divided into early, mid-, and late periods, broadly paralleling Milankovitch-scale climate intervals and vegetation changes inferred from regional palynological records. The early Holocene (11.1-8.0 ka) climate was cooler and dry, vegetation in the region was comprised of Picea-dominated woodlands, and the lake diatom flora included primarily benthic taxa. Warming in the mid-Holocene (8.0-3.6 ka) allowed for stabilization of soils and forests in the catchment, stronger thermal stratification in the lake, and resultant increases in oligo-mesotrophic diatom taxa such as Discostella stelligera. During the late Holocene (3.6 ka to present), an increase in the abundance of deciduous trees (e.g. Betula and Alnus) in response to cooling led to nutrient-enrichment and higher overall lake productivity. The record from Lac Brûlé (45°43’09”N, 75°26’32”W, 270 m a.s.l.) encompassed the last ~1200 years of the late Holocene. Generalized additive models (GAM) revealed a tight coupling between diatoms and catchment-mediated processes (e.g. vegetation and disturbances), which were closely aligned with climate variations. During the Medieval Warm Period (800-1300 CE), pollen-based inferences of warmer summer temperatures were associated with high abundances of Cyclotella bodanica var. intermedia and Cyclotella rossii; this signalled oligotrophic lake conditions and prolonged thermal stratification. The onset of the Little Ice Age (1450-1850 CE) marked a cooling in the region, and a decline in Tabellaria flocculosa str. IIIp indicated increased nutrient loading from the catchment area. Situated less than 300m from Lac Brûlé are remnants of the Wallingford-Back Mine, which ran from 1924-1972 CE; activities at the mine resulted in local changes to nutrient availability and primary productivity at this site. In previous studies of both Lac Noir and Lac Brûlé, pollen records had indicated overall similarities in the vegetation histories in response to climate variability during the late Holocene. Diatom assemblages were influenced by individual lake conditions and were thus unique to each site; nevertheless, they were closely linked with local and regional patterns of vegetation composition. A main point of difference in the paleo-records from both lakes was attributed to a local fire in the Lac Brûlé catchment at 1345 CE, which caused an early decline in hemlock (Tsuga). The decrease in hemlock was seen at Lac Noir only centuries later, and diatoms in each lake responded according to vegetation changes within their own respective catchments. This research shows that high-resolution sampling of lake sediments is able to detect diatom responses to both long-term and abrupt changes in the environment. Individual sites show similarly timed responses of other proxy-indicators, such as pollen and cladocera, to climate and land-use changes. However, distinct differences in the aquatic biota of well-dated proximate sites can be used to identify influences of regional climate variations, which are sometimes masked by localized, non-climatic processes.

Lake Tuborg is a large lake on west-central Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Part of the lake is meromictic, and contains trapped saltwater below about 55 m depth. The lake receives meltwater and sediments from multiple sources, including snowmelt and glacier melt. A lake process study was undertaken from 2001-2003 at Lake Tuborg that involved obtaining profiles of water temperature, salinity, transmissivity, and dissolved oxygen. Networks of short and long sediment cores were also obtained throughout the lake. During the last year of monitoring the lake and its sediments, a large catastrophic drainage of an ice-dammed lake occurred (a jökulhlaup). This was the largest jökulhlaup witnessed in Canada since 1947. Detailed measurements of lake conditions before, during, and after the jökulhlaup allowed the responses to be measured in great detail. The lake drained by floating its ice dam, an extremely rare drainage style in the Canadian High Arctic. The basin of Lake Tuborg closest to jökulhlaup inflow filled with fresh, cold and turbid water. A sill separates this basin from the larger more distal meromictic basin, and this sill effectively blocked turbidity currents from entering this basin. Conclusions from this phase of research include (1) salinity and temperature in the saltwater basin were minimally affected by the jökulhlaup, and (2) at a deep, distal location, an identifiable thick, coarse-grained, non-erosive deposit was produced by the jökulhlaup. The above conclusions allowed the varved sedimentary record to be examined for similar deposits in the past, with the assumption that similar deposits could be found in the long core record, the sediments could be dated, and that previous jökulhlaup deposits would also be nonerosive. Varve-thickness counting, Cesium-137 dating, and particle size analyses showed that prior to 1960, no similar events occurred in roughly the last thousand years. In addition, only three large jökulhlaups have occurred in the last thousand years, all of which occurred after about 1960. This significantly improves the understanding of the history of the lake, the surrounding glaciers, and the paleoclimate of the region. The lake bottom deposits that were sampled before, during and after the 2003 jökulhlaup were extraordinarily unique. A major part of the work of characterizing these deposits involved determining the size of their constituent particles. Image analysis of sedimentary particles using backscattered electron microscope imagery is a method to determine particle size at extremely high resolution. This tool improves on existing techniques since it automates the process of statistically processing images, quantifies the percentage of disturbances on images, and allows for extremely small measurement windows relative to particle size by implementing special particle counting rules.

No description available.

The impact of global warming on human water resources is attracting increasing attention. No other region in this world is so strongly affected by changes in water supply than the tropics. Especially in Africa, the availability and access to water is more crucial to existence (basic livelihoods and economic growth) than anywhere else on Earth. In East Africa, rainfall is mainly influenced by the migration of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) with more rain and floods during El Niño and severe droughts during La Niña. The forecasting of East African rainfall in a warming world requires a better understanding of the response of ENSO-driven variability to mean climate. Unfortunately, existing meteorological data sets are too short or incomplete to establish a precise evaluation of future climate. From Lake Challa near Mount Kilimanjaro, we report records from a laminated lake sediment core spanning the last 25,000 years. Analyzing a monthly cleared sediment trap confirms the annual origin of the laminations and demonstrates that the varve-thicknesses are strongly linked to the duration and strength of the windy season. Given the modern control of seasonal ITCZ location on wind and rain in this region and the inverse relation between the two, thicker varves represent windier and thus drier years. El Niño (La Niña) events are associated with wetter (drier) conditions in east Africa and decreased (increased) surface wind speeds. Based on this fact, the thickness of the varves can be used as a tool to reconstruct a) annual rainfall b) wind season strength, and c) ENSO variability. Within this thesis, I found evidence for centennialscale changes in ENSO-related rainfall variability during the last three millennia, abrupt changes in variability during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age, and an overall reduction in East African rainfall and its variability during the Last Glacial period. Climate model simulations support forward extrapolation from these lake-sediment data, indicating that a future Indian Ocean warming will enhance East Africa’s hydrological cycle and its interannual variability in rainfall. Furthermore, I compared geochemical analyses from the sediment trap samples with a broad range of limnological, meteorological, and geological parameters to characterize the impact of sedimentation processes from the in-situ rocks to the deposited sediments. As a result an excellent calibration for existing μXRF data from Lake Challa over the entire 25,000 year long profile was provided. The climate development during the last 25,000 years as reconstructed from the Lake Challa sediments is in good agreement with other studies and highlights the complex interactions between long-term orbital forcing, atmosphere, ocean and land surface conditions. My findings help to understand how abrupt climate changes occur and how these changes correlate with climate changes elsewhere on Earth. / Änderungen des Klimas in einer sich erwärmenden Erde haben große Auswirkungen auf den globalen und lokalen Wasserhaushalt und rücken anhand starker Extremereignisse immer häufiger in den Fokus der Öffentlichkeit. Besonders die Regionen der Tropen sind von derartigen Einschnitten stark gefährdet. Der jährliche Niederschlag in Ostafrika ist stark mit der saisonalen Wanderung der ITCZ (Innertropischen Konvergenzzone) sowie mit dem El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Phänomen verbunden. Extreme Regenfälle und Überschwemmungen während El Niño Jahren stehen Trockenheit und Dürren in La Niña Jahren gegenüber. Prognosen über zukünftige Veränderungen der ostafrikanischen Niederschläge erfordern ein verbessertes Verständnis der ENSO antreibenden Faktoren. Unglücklicherweise sind die vorhandenen meteorologischen Datenreihen nicht lang genug oder besitzen nicht die benötigte Homogenität. Einen hilfreichen Beitrag können jährlich geschichtete Seesedimente des am Fuße des Kilimandscharo gelegenen Lake Challa leisten. Anhand einer monatlich aufgelösten Sedimentfalle konnte ich nachweisen, dass die rund 25.000 Jahre zurückreichenden Sedimente eine jährliche Struktur besitzen sowie die Dicke dieser jährlichen Schichtung (Warve) stark mit der Dauer und Intensität der saisonal windreichen/trockenen Jahreszeit verbunden ist. Dickere Warven repräsentieren windige/trockene Jahre, wohingegen dünnere Warven für windschwache und feuchte Jahre stehen. Stärkere Winde und kaum Niederschläge treten oft im Zusammenhang mit einem La Niña Ereignis in Ostafrika auf, wohingegen während eines El Niño Ereignisses häufig extreme Niederschläge mit wenig Wind zu beobachten sind. Anhand der Vermessung der Warven kann man verschiedene Klimaparameter rekonstruieren: a) den jährlichen Niederschlag b) jährliche Windgeschwindigkeiten und ihre Intensitäten sowie c) ENSO Variabilitäten. Die in meiner Arbeit gewonnenen klimatischen Informationen zeigen starke Änderungen der ENSO Variabilität innerhalb der letzten 3.000 Jahre mit starken Unterschieden während der Kleinen Eiszeit und während der Mittelalterlichen Warmzeit sowie deutlich trockene und windige Bedingungen mit sehr geringen ENSO Aktivitäten im glazialem Zeitraum (18.500 und 21.000 Jahren). Modellberechnungen unterstützen diese Ergebnisse einer Zunahme von Extremereignissen und feuchteren Bedingungen im Zuge einer Erwärmung des Indischen Ozeans. Mittels geochemischer Analysen der Sedimentfallenproben sowie die daraus resultierende Verknüpfung mit limnologischen und meteorologischen Parametern, konnte ich einen entscheidenden Beitrag zur erfolgreichen Interpretation der existierenden 25.000 Jahre langen μXRF Datensätze leisten. Der Anteil an allochthonem und autochthonem Eintrag kann so genau klassifiziert werden. Das dadurch gewonnene Bild der Klimaentwicklung der letzten 25.000 Jahre deckt sich hervorragend mit anderen Studien und ermöglicht Einblicke in das komplexe Zusammenspiel zwischen Ozean-Atmosphäre und Umwelt auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent. Besonders die für die Ostafrikaforschung extrem hohe Auflösung der Daten wird helfen, die abrupten Klimawechsel und Interaktionen besser verstehen zu können.

A 147cm sediment core from Lake DV09, northern Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada (75° 34’34”N, 89° 18’55”W) contains annually-laminated (varved) sediments, providing a 1600-year record of climate variability. A minerogenic lamina deposited during the annual thaw period and a thin deposit of organic matter deposited during the summer and through the winter, together form a clastic-organic couplet each year. The thinnest varves occur from AD800-1050, and the thickest from AD1100-1300, during the Medieval Warm Period. The relative sediment density is also highest during this period suggesting increased sediment transport energy. The coldest period of the Little Ice Age appears to be during the AD1600s. Varve widths over the past century indicate climate warming in the region. / This research program was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS). A tuition bursary from Ultramar Inc. also helped in making this research possible. Logistical support was provided by the Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP Contribution number 04508).

A 147cm sediment core from Lake DV09, northern Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada (75° 34’34”N, 89° 18’55”W) contains annually-laminated (varved) sediments, providing a 1600-year record of climate variability. A minerogenic lamina deposited during the annual thaw period and a thin deposit of organic matter deposited during the summer and through the winter, together form a clastic-organic couplet each year. The thinnest varves occur from AD800-1050, and the thickest from AD1100-1300, during the Medieval Warm Period. The relative sediment density is also highest during this period suggesting increased sediment transport energy. The coldest period of the Little Ice Age appears to be during the AD1600s. Varve widths over the past century indicate climate warming in the region. / This research program was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS). A tuition bursary from Ultramar Inc. also helped in making this research possible. Logistical support was provided by the Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP Contribution number 04508).