Plant, insect, and fungi fossils under the center of Greenland's ice sheet are evidence of ice-free times.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
; 121(33): e2407465121, 2024 Aug 13.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39102554
ABSTRACT
The persistence and size of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) through the Pleistocene is uncertain. This is important because reconstructing changes in the GrIS determines its contribution to sea level rise during prior warm climate periods and informs future projections. To understand better the history of Greenland's ice, we analyzed glacial till collected in 1993 from below 3 km of ice at Summit, Greenland. The till contains plant fragments, wood, insect parts, fungi, and cosmogenic nuclides showing that the bed of the GrIS at Summit is a long-lived, stable land surface preserving a record of deposition, exposure, and interglacial ecosystems. Knowing that central Greenland was tundra-covered during the Pleistocene informs the understanding of Arctic biosphere response to deglaciation.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Plants
/
Ice Cover
/
Fossils
/
Fungi
/
Insecta
Limits:
Animals
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
/
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
United States