Source:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324991910_Further_Details_on_Holocene_Treeline_GlacierIce_Patch_and_Climate_History_in_Swedish_Lapland
or
http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2454-8685.0304008
International Journal of
Research in Geography
Volume 3, Issue 4, 2017,
Pages 61 through 69
"Further Details on
Holocene Tree Line,
Glacier / Ice Patch
and Climate History
and Climate History
in Swedish Lapland"
by Leif Kullman
Department of Ecology and
Environmental Science,
SE 90187
Umeå, Sweden
Note:
There will be no wild guess
predictions of a coming climate
change catastrophe, that will
never happen, as you read
in most mainstream media
climate change articles.
Real science is concerned with
climate history -- reality -- not
imagined coming catastrophes !
SUMMARY:
This is a real science study
of the climate history in
northern Sweden, looking at
plant growth during warmer
periods of the current Holocene
interglacial.
We are NOT living in the warmest
portion of the current interglacial.
It was several degrees C. warmer
during the Holocene Optimum
period, roughly 5,000 to 10,000
years ago.
The fossil evidence in this study
suggests it was +3.6 degrees C.
warmer in Northern Sweden
many thousands of years ago.
DETAILS:
The study was carried out
in the central Swedish Scandes,
in the southern part of the province
Lapland.
Glacier / ice patch melting
during the global warming
in the past 300+ years
exposed previously ice-covered
fossil tree remains in many parts
of the world.
This study analyses fossil tree
remnants ( trunks, roots and cones ),
in Sweden, recently exposed
at the fringe of receding glaciers
and snow / ice patches.
These ancient remnants offer a
unique opportunity to improve
our understanding about past tree line
positions, and associated plant cover
characteristics.
These plant fossils indirectly
provide clues to ancient climates.
This approach has an accuracy
exceeding any other option
for tree cover reconstruction
in high-altitude mountain
landscapes.
This approach has proven accuracy
in time, space and species composition,
going far beyond the resolution of
pollen analysis, and other microfossil
approaches.
The main focus was on the
fore fields of the glacier Tärnaglaciären
in the southern Swedish Lapland.
Seven fossils were found,
and radio-carbon dated
(4 Betula, 2 Pinus, and 1 Picea).
Betula and Pinus ranged in age
from 9,435 to 6,665 years old.
A cone of Picea abies,
contained in an outwash
peat cake, was 11,200
years old.
All recovered tree fossils were
found at very high elevations,
about 600 to 700 meters above
the modern tree lines.
This implies, corrected for land uplift,
summer temperatures were at least
+3.6 °C. higher back then, compared
with present-day temperatures.
These results, plus results from
other Swedish glaciers, create a
new view of the early postglacial
landscape and climate in the
high-altitude Swedish Scandes.
In the Swedish Scandes,
findings of fossil trees,
high above current tree lines,
have been discussed in
these studies:
Kullman 2004;
Öberg & Kullman 2011;
Kullman & Öberg 2013, 2015;
Kullman 2017.
Kullman 2017.