Influence of North Pacific decadal variability on the western Canadian Arctic over the past 700 years

Lapointe, François; Francus, Pierre; Lamoureux, Scott F.; Vuille, Mathias; Jenny, Jean-Philippe; Bradley, Raymond S.; Massa, Charly

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-411-2017

Articles | Volume 13, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-411-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-411-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 4

Research article

|

21 Apr 2017

Research article |

| 21 Apr 2017

Influence of North Pacific decadal variability on the western Canadian Arctic over the past 700 years

François Lapointe, Pierre Francus, Scott F. Lamoureux, Mathias Vuille, Jean-Philippe Jenny, Raymond S. Bradley, and Charly Massa

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-411-2017-supplement

Data sets

Interdecadal climate variability and regime-scale shifts in Pacific North America Z. Gedalof and D. J. Smith https://doi.org/10.1029/2000GL011779

Reconstructed Pacific Decadal Oscillation versus Cape Bounty East Lake varve thickness, Dataset #874678 F. Lapointe, P. Francus, S. Lamoureux, M. Vuille, J.-P. Jenny, R. S. Bradley, and C. Massa https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.874678

Short summary

Using a unique annually-laminated record (varve) from the western Canadian High Arctic, we found a significant relationship between our varve record and instrumental and reconstructed Pacific Decadal Oscillations (PDOs). The negative (positive) PDO (North Pacific Index) phases increase precipitation as low sea-ice extent, warmer temperature and winds reach our region more efficiently. Our results imply that future negative PDO phases will likely impact the already rapidly warming Arctic.