IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/perpro/v29y2018i3p199-209.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ice wedges as archives of winter paleoclimate: A review

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Opel
  • Hanno Meyer
  • Sebastian Wetterich
  • Thomas Laepple
  • Alexander Dereviagin
  • Julian Murton

Abstract

Ice wedges are a characteristic feature of northern permafrost landscapes and grow mainly by snowmelt that refreezes in thermal contraction cracks that open in winter. In high latitudes the stable‐isotope composition of precipitation (δ18O and δD) is sensitive to air temperature. Hence, the integrated climate information of winter precipitation is transferred to individual ice veins and can be preserved over millennia, allowing ice wedges to be used to reconstruct past winter climate. Recent studies indicate a promising potential of ice‐wedge‐based paleoclimate reconstructions for more comprehensive reconstructions of Arctic past climate evolution. We briefly highlight the potential and review the current state of ice‐wedge paleoclimatology. Existing knowledge gaps and challenges are outlined and priorities for future ice‐wedge research are suggested. The major research topics are (1) frost cracking and infilling dynamics, (2) formation and preservation of the stable‐isotope information, (3) ice‐wedge dating, (4) age‐model development and (5) interpretation of stable‐isotope time series. Progress in each of these topics will help to exploit the paleoclimatic potential of ice wedges, particularly in view of their unique cold‐season information, which is not adequately covered by other terrestrial climate archives.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Opel & Hanno Meyer & Sebastian Wetterich & Thomas Laepple & Alexander Dereviagin & Julian Murton, 2018. "Ice wedges as archives of winter paleoclimate: A review," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 199-209, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:perpro:v:29:y:2018:i:3:p:199-209
    DOI: 10.1002/ppp.1980
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.1980
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/ppp.1980?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anfisa Pismeniuk & Petr Semenov & Alexandra Veremeeva & Wei He & Anna Kozachek & Sergei Malyshev & Elizaveta Shatrova & Anastasiia Lodochnikova & Irina Streletskaya, 2023. "Geochemical Features of Ground Ice from the Faddeevsky Peninsula Eastern Coast (Kotelny Island, East Siberian Arctic) as a Key to Understand Paleoenvironmental Conditions of Its Formation," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Sasiri Bandara & Duane Froese & Trevor J. Porter & Fabrice Calmels, 2020. "Holocene pore‐ice δ18O and δ2H records from drained thermokarst lake basins in the Old Crow Flats, Yukon, Canada," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 497-508, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:perpro:v:29:y:2018:i:3:p:199-209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1530 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.