Dendro-provenancing of Arctic driftwood

Abstract

29Arctic driftwood represents a unique proxy archive at the interface of marine and terrestrial 30 environments, which will likely gain in importance under predicted global climate change. Well-31 replicated, circumpolar network analyses that systematically investigate species-specific origin areas, 32 transport routes and deposition characteristics of Arctic driftwood, are, however, still missing. Here, we 33 compare tree-ring width (TRW) measurements of 2,412 pine, larch and spruce driftwood samples from 34

Driftwood in the Eemian interglacial lacustrine unit from the Faroe Islands and its possible source areas: palaeobotanical and ichnological analysis

“…In the Holocene, two main source areas are possible based on the North Atlantic marine currents around the islands. For the identification of source region for recent driftwood, the dendro-provenancing method can be successfully used (Hellmann et al 2016(Hellmann et al , 2017, but for the pre-Holocene samples appropriate data are missing. In this case, the finds of driftwood there are considered to be of North American origin (Graham 1952;Dickson 1992).…”

“…If we calculate the approximate transport distance of the driftwood from both possible source areas, it results in 130-200 days for transport from North America and 350-1100 days from Siberia. In the study of Hellmann et al (2017), the considerably longer time is related to the so-called 'American pathway',~4-5 years. In the study of Hellmann et al (2017), the considerably longer time is related to the so-called 'American pathway',~4-5 years.…”

“…Hellmann et al (2017) identified P. sylvestris, coming from Yenisei River and Yakutsk regions in Siberia. In our hypothesis, we assume a much more southern origin of the American wood: the region around the Great Lakes.…”

“…The Faroe Islands and the southern coast of Iceland are situated in a transitional zone, where both woodland source areas are possible (Malmros 1990(Malmros , 1994. For the identification of source region for recent driftwood, the dendro-provenancing method can be successfully used (Hellmann et al 2016(Hellmann et al , 2017, but for the pre-Holocene samples appropriate data are missing.…”

“…The maximal period of buoyancy for pine and larch wood is 10 months and, assuming that the wood from Siberia could be carried frosted in sea ice for part of the time, we cannot exclude any of the areas (H€ aggblom 1982). In the study of Hellmann et al (2017), the considerably longer time is related to the so-called 'American pathway',~4-5 years.…”