Expanded spatial extent of the Medieval Climate Anomaly revealed in lake-sediment records across the boreal region in northwest Ontario

noaa-lakelevel-23094 Northwest Ontario 2,000 Year Lake Depth Reconstructions Laird, K.R.; Haig, H.A.; Ma, S.; Kingsbury, M.V.; Brown, T.A.; Lewis, C.F.M.; Oglesby, R.J.; Cumming, B.F. Northwest Ontario 2,000 Year Lake Depth Reconstructions 2017-11-15 NCDC-Paleoclimatology ONLINE Files Pending https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/23094 Investigator K.R. Laird Investigator H.A. Haig Investigator S. Ma Investigator M.V. Kingsbury Investigator T.A. Brown Investigator C.F.M. Lewis Investigator R.J. Oglesby Investigator B.F. Cumming earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|lake levels|paleolimnology age,null,null,calendar year before present,null,climate reconstructions|lake levels|paleolimnology,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|lake levels|paleolimnology lake level,diatom assemblage,null,meter,null,climate reconstructions|lake levels|paleolimnology,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|lake levels|paleolimnology age,null,null,year Common Era,null,climate reconstructions|lake levels|paleolimnology,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate lake levels geoscientificInformation Other Hydroclimate Reconstruction 1952 cal yr BP -60 cal yr BP Complete 49.45 50.23 -94.77 -91.45 353 457 Continent North America Canada Ontario ELA Lake 442>LATITUDE 49.77>LONGITUDE -93.82 Continent North America Canada Ontario Dixie Lake>LATITUDE 49.83>LONGITUDE -93.95 Continent North America Canada Ontario ELA Lake 239>LATITUDE 49.67>LONGITUDE -93.73 Continent North America Canada Ontario Gall Lake>LATITUDE 50.23>LONGITUDE -91.45 Continent North America Canada Ontario Meekin Lake>LATITUDE 49.82>LONGITUDE -94.77 Continent North America Canada Ontario Little Raleigh>LATITUDE 49.45>LONGITUDE -91.89 None Please cite original publication, online resource, dataset and publication DOIs (where available), and date accessed when using downloaded data. If there is no publication information, please cite investigator, title, online resource, and date accessed. The appearance of external links associated with a dataset does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the Department of Commerce/NOAA does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this Department of Commerce/NOAA Web site. English DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data DATA Center Contact Bruce Bauer bruce.a.bauer@noaa.gov paleo@noaa.gov 303-497-6280 303-497-6513

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Boulder CO 80305-3328 USA online ASCII Kathleen R. Laird, Heather A. Haig, Susan Ma, Melanie V. Kingsbury, Thomas A. Brown, C.F. Michael Lewis, Robert J. Oglesby and Brian F. Cumming 2012 Expanded spatial extent of the Medieval Climate Anomaly revealed in lake-sediment records across the boreal region in northwest Ontario Global Change Biology 18 9 2869-2881 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02740.x http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02740.x/full

Multi-decadal to centennial-scale shifts in effective moisture over the past two millennia are inferred from sedimentary records from six lakes spanning a ~250 km region in northwest Ontario. This is the first regional application of a technique developed to reconstruct drought from drainage lakes (open lakes with surface outlets). This regional network of proxy drought records is based on individual within-lake calibration models developed using diatom assemblages collected from surface sediments across a water-depth gradient. Analysis of diatom assemblages from sediment cores collected close to the near-shore ecological boundary between benthic and planktonic diatom taxa indicated this boundary shifted over time in all lakes. These shifts are largely dependent on climate-driven influences, and can provide a sensitive record of past drought. Our lake-sediment records indicate two periods of synchronous signals, suggesting a common large-scale climate forcing. The first is a period of prolonged aridity during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, c. 900-1400 CE). Documentation of aridity across this region expands the known spatial extent of the MCA megadrought into a region that historically has not experienced extreme droughts such as those in central and western north America. The second synchronous period is the recent signal of the past ~100 years, which indicates a change to higher effective moisture that may be related to anthropogenic forcing on climate. This approach has the potential to fill regional gaps, where many previous paleo-lake depth methods (based on deeper centrally located cores) were relatively insensitive. By filling regional gaps, a better understanding of past spatial patterns in drought can be used to assess the sensitivity and realism of climate model projections of future climate change. This type of data is especially important for validating high spatial resolution, regional climate models.

GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/Dixie.Laird.2012.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; Dixie Lake Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/Gall.Laird.2012.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; Gall Lake Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/Dixie.Laird.2012.txt NOAA Template File; Dixie Lake Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/LittleRaleigh.Laird.2012.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; Little Raleigh Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/ELA239.Laird.2012.txt NOAA Template File; ELA Lake 239 Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/ELA442.Laird.2012.txt NOAA Template File; ELA Lake 442 Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/LittleRaleigh.Laird.2012.txt NOAA Template File; Little Raleigh Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/ELA442.Laird.2012.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; ELA Lake 442 Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/Gall.Laird.2012.txt NOAA Template File; Gall Lake Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/ELA239.Laird.2012.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; ELA Lake 239 Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/Meekin.Laird.2012.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; Meekin Lake Depth Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/Meekin.Laird.2012.txt NOAA Template File; Meekin Lake Depth Reconstruction USA/NOAA DIF Version 9.8.4 2018-12-11 2018-12-11