Ice-Core Reconstructions of Biomass Burning, Pollution, and Paleoclimate

The School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Presents Dr. Nathan Chellman, Desert Research Institute

Ice-Core Reconstructions of Biomass Burning, Pollution, and Paleoclimate

Ice cores provide the most direct records of past atmospheric composition and environmental change. Detailed, high-resolution chemical measurements from ice cores are used to underpin model simulations, understand human impacts on the environment, and reconstruct climate variability over past centuries to millennia.

Here we present an overview of continuous flow methods for ice core analysis and discuss recent and ongoing studies at the Desert Research Institute’s Ice Core Lab. Such projects include 1) using an array of Arctic ice core records of lead deposition to link widespread Northern Hemisphere pollution during the past two millennia to ancient societies, historical events, and technological progress, 2) using arrays of Antarctic ice core records of black carbon deposition coupled with atmospheric transport modeling to reconstruct biomass burning on multiple timescales, and 3) using alpine ice cores from semi-permanent ice patches in the Rocky Mountains to investigate Holocene climate changes in western North America.