SEDIMENT BIOMARKERS TRACK A SEABIRD COLONY RESPONSE TO PAST CHANGES IN CLIMATE

Jules M. Blais¹, Raphael Siegel¹, David C. Eickmeyer¹, Linda E. Kimpe¹, Arnaud Huguet²¹University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1N 6N5² Sorbonne Universite, Paris, France Lake sediments track a history of long-term environmental changes.  Environmental monitoring often extends back no more than a few decades, and is lacking in remote places like the Arctic, which is currently experiencing some of the most rapid environmental change on Earth. Archival sediment records in the form of dated sediment cores can greatly enhance our knowledge of past environmental change because they can extend the time scales of studies by thousands of years and they are broadly distributed in the environment. Here we summarize the results from a dated sediment core from Cape Vera Devon Island that tracks inputs from a large northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) colony via d15N, sterols, stanols, and biogenic elements known to be enriched near seabird colonies. We compare these records with emerging techniques in paleoclimate studies, notably the microbial membrane lipids called glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) that track recent temperature records to show how northern fulmar populations have responded to past climate.

Presentation Preference: Standard Oral (12 Minutes)

Primary Presenter: Jules Blais, University of Ottawa (jules.blais@uottawa.ca)

Authors:

Jules Blais, University of Ottawa  (jules.blais@uottawa.ca)

Raphael Siegel, University of Ottawa  (rsieg075@uottawa.ca)

David Eickmeyer, University of Ottawa  (deickmey@uottawa.ca)

Linda Kimpe, University of Ottawa  (Linda.Kimpe@uottawa.ca)

Arnaud Huguet, Sorbonne Universite  (arnaud.huguet@sorbonne-universie.fr)