New data collected from Russia's Lena River Delta show warming winter temperatures

Researchers at the Alfred Wegner Institute have decoded climate data from permafrost ground ice in Russia’s Lena River Delta, allowing them to determine winter temperatures over the past 7000 years. Their conclusion is that winter temperatures in regions of the Siberian permafrost have risen over the years.

The data was collected by using oxygen isotope analysis on ice wedges. This is the first time researchers have succeeded in collecting this kind of temperature information using oxygen isotope analysis. Up until around 1850, the winter temperatures in this region gradually increased. These early temperature rises can be attributed to changes in solar intensity. However, since around 1850, the beginning of industrialization, temperatures have increased at a faster rate.

Photo: Thomas Opel

This new information supports a theory shown by most climate models: in the Arctic over the past 7000 years, there has been cooling temperatures in the summer and warming temperatures in the winter. The research is also more data to prove how anthropogenic climate change has been affecting the environment and has been affecting the environment since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Source: Science Daily