New Scientific Evidence Robustly Affirms Scandinavian Temperatures Were 3-4°C Warmer 9000 Years Ago

Because trees may only grow within narrowly-defined temperature ranges and elevations above sea level, perhaps the most reliable means of assessing the air temperatures of past climates is to collect ancient treeline evidence.  In a new paper, Kullman (2018) found tree remnants at mountain sites 600 to 700 meters higher than where the modern treeline ends, strongly implying Early Holocene air temperatures in northern Sweden were 3-4°C warmer than recent decades.

Kullman, 2018

“The present paper reports results from an extensive project aiming at improved understanding of postglacial subalpine/alpine vegetation, treeline, glacier and climate history in the Scandes of northern Sweden. The main methodology is analyses of mega fossil tree remnants, i.e. trunks, roots and cones, recently exposed at the fringe of receding glaciers and snow/ice patches. This approach has a spatial resolution and accuracy, which exceeds any other option for tree cover reconstruction in high-altitude mountain landscapes.”
All recovered tree specimens originate from exceptionally high elevations, about 600-700 m atop of modern treeline positions.”
“Conservatively drawing on the latter figure and a summer temperature lapse rate of 0.6 °C per 100 m elevation (Laaksonen 1976), could a priori mean that, summer temperatures were at least 4.2 °C warmer than present around 9500 year before present. However, glacio-isostatic land uplift by at least 100 m since that time (Möller 1987; Påsse & Anderson 2005) implies that this figure has to be reduced to 3.6 °C higher than present-day levels, i.e. first decades of the 21st century. Evidently, this was the warmth peak of the Holocene, hitherto.”
“This inference concurs with paleoclimatic reconstructions from Europe and Greenland (Korhola et al. 2002; Bigler et al. 2003; Paus 2013; Luoto et al. 2014; Väliranta et al. 2015).”

New Paper: Greenland Ice Sheet 2-5°C Warmer With Much Lower Volume During The Early Holocene

Nielsen et al., 2018

The Holocene climatic optimum was a period 8–5 kyr ago when annual mean surface temperatures in Greenland were 2–3°C warmer than present-day values. … The initial mass loss in response to the temperature increase in the early Holocene is largest when forcing the ice sheet with the temperature and accumulation reconstructions from Gkinis and others (2014) (Experiment 5). In this simulation, temperature anomalies peak at more than 5°C above the present-day reference climate in the early Holocene and the ice sheet loses 20% of its volume in the 3000 years following the onset of the Holocene through increased surface melting.”

“The largest and most rapid retreat of the ice sheet was found for Experiment 5, which was forced by the temperature and accumulation reconstructions of Gkinis and others (2014). In this temperature reconstruction, temperature increases rapidly at the onset of the interglacial and has several shorter periods with temperatures more than 5°C above present in the early Holocene. .. Geological evidence suggests further that the ice-sheet margins in the southwest retreated up to 100 km behind their present-day position during the mid-Holocene (Funder and others, 2011). This evidence is further supported by interpretations of relative sea-level records and bedrock uplift rates that also point towards ice sheet retreat beyond the present ice volume in the mid-Holocene (Khan and others, 2008; Funder and others, 2011; Lecavalier and others, 2014).”
We find that the ice sheet retreats to a minimum volume of 0.15–1.2 m sea-level equivalent smaller than present in the early or mid-Holocene when forcing an ice-sheet model with temperature reconstructions that contain a climatic optimum, and that the ice sheet has continued to recover from this minimum up to present day.”

Graph Source: Nielsen et al., 2018 and Briner et al., 2016

18 responses to “New Scientific Evidence Robustly Affirms Scandinavian Temperatures Were 3-4°C Warmer 9000 Years Ago”

  1. Bitter&twisted

    “Greenland ice sheet some 2-5C warmer” a few thousand years ago.
    And guess what?
    No runaway climatic disaster.
    In fact this period, before the climastrologists’ revisionism, was called the “Holocene Optimum”.

  2. AndyG55

    The period from 3k before present leading down to the LIA wasn’t called NEOGLACIATION for nothing.

    A couple of bumps on the way down, at the RWP and MWP, leading to the coldest period in 10,000 years.

    We are VERY fortunate to be a small bump above that coldest of periods, but we are still very much in a cold period of the current interglacial.

    Why anyone complains about this NATURAL warming, is beyond me..

    It is sheer idiocy to think that if human emissions have actually aided that slight recovery from the LIA, (which I see no evidence for), we should actually do anything about trying to slow that warming !!

  3. AndyG55

    ps.. I’ve added some minor notations to the Briner graph

    https://s19.postimg.cc/ceo16fi7n/Greenland-Ice-Sheet-Briner.jpg

    (there seems to be an issue with the image provider, try again later if it doesn’t come up)

    1. tom0mason

      AndyG55,
      It’s there OK.

      1. AndyG55

        Yep, seems to be ok now. Only the little black cross when I tried to view it when getting the link. They have had server issues before.. regularly !

  4. Yonason

    Kind of puts all the fuss they’re making into perspective, and exposes them for the charlatans they are.

    1. AndyG55

      PRECISELY !!!!!

      Basically, all this warming whoo-haa comes down to one thing.

      DENIAL OF CLIMATE HISTORY

      Not only have they tried to DENY climate history..

      .. they have actually tried to ERASE it.

  5. Penelope

    Seems to be providing a lot of other images irrelevant to me.

  6. tom0mason

    Good old Scots Pine shows us the way through the dross, and towards the reality of what happened.

    1. AndyG55

      None of those silly upside down Yamal trees !! 🙂

      1. tom0mason

        AndyG55,
        Yes but was it not a single upside down Yamal tree! 🤣 🙂

        1. Yonason

          Perhaps a virtual upside down Yamal tree, reconstructed from native legends and homogenizations based on surrounding trees (some themselves virtual) – you know, like they do with “record” temps in remote regions that have never seen a thermometer?

          1. AndyG55

            Must be the weekend. 😉

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  9. Denis Ables

    And the MWP contains similar evidence, including not only peer-reviewed studies, but also the plain old fact that the Mendenhall Glacier, during its recent recession, uncovered a 1,000 year old forest. No trees have grown at that latitude anywhere near that site.

  10. Paul Callander

    Please note that the Kullman paper states that the treeline was 600-700 m higher than in the present , not 600-700 m North. That is equivalent to many kilometres North.

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