14 DAY TRIAL // A new analysis of available data on the Younger Dryas Period, which occurred around 12,680 years ago, reveals that some of the most dramatic effects that occurred during this spell of global cooling can be attributed to shifts in our planet's water cycle.
The work was carried out by researchers with the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences and the University of Potsdam. Their conclusions appear in a paper published in the January 19 online issue of the top scientific journal Nature Geoscience.
The Younger Dryas was a period characterized by abrupt temperature changes that affected significant portions of all continents on the planet. Until now, the role that the hydrological cycle played in this event has been largely ignored, but this study has finally addressed the lack of relevant data.
The water cycle was not simply a factor in these ancient climate changes, it was actually its main driver, the team concluded. These results are based on analyses of organic remains collected from lake sediments at the bottom of Meerfelder maar, a lake in western Germany.
These samples enabled the research group to reconstruct the hydrological cycle present in the area nearly 13,000 years ago, with a level of precision never-before reached by any other model.
It was discovered that the dry polar air which made its way over western Europe was responsible for the catastrophic ecosystem and habitat declines that followed.
“In our new study we can show for the first time that this change in the pathway of westerly wind systems brought dry polar air into western Europe and this was the ultimate cause for the widespread disappearance of forests in the area,” says Dirk Sachse, a researcher with the Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Potsdam.
“Our results also show that abrupt climate and environmental change may not be coeval on large regional scales, but can take place with substantial regional and temporal delays,” adds GFZ investigator, professor Achim Brauer, quoted by Astrobiology Magazine.
The investigation was funded through the Emmy-Noether Program and the Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM, which are sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Its conclusions can now be used to predict how future climate changes will impact Europe, the team concludes.