The National Science Foundation awarded Dominic Winski $137,419 to reconstruct 1,500 years of summer climate and wildfire history in Alaska, western Canada and Siberia using an ice core from Denali National Park.
Studies that combine past records of summer climate and wildfire are critically needed, says Winski. “Right now, the climate and landscape are changing. We know that in many areas, this means more wildfires, but we do not yet fully understand the relationship between climate and wildfire as we move into the future.”
Winski, a research assistant professor with the Climate Change Institute, is principal investigator of the project. UMaine is the lead institution in the collaborative study with the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College and the University of California, Irvine that was awarded $570,428 in total by the NSF.
"The Arctic is warming more rapidly than any other region of the world,” says Winski. “To anticipate and prepare for a warming Arctic, it is critical to better understand past variations in summertime climate and their associated environmental effects, particularly during warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), circa 1000–1300 Common Era (CE)."
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Image via Dominic Winski.