North Atlantic Oscillation seesaw effect in leaf morphological records from dwarf birch shrubs in Greenland and Finland

Fabian E.Z.  Ercan; Daan Blok; Stef Weijers; Astrid Odé; Friederike Wagner-Cremer

doi:10.33265/polar.v40.7709

Fabian E.Z. Ercan Palaeoecology, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Daan Blok Dutch Research Council, Den Haag, The Netherlands https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2703-9303
Stef Weijers Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3386-5417
Astrid Odé Palaeoecology, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0672-9535
Friederike Wagner-Cremer Palaeoecology, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8119-3558

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v40.7709

Keywords: Palaeoecology, Betula nana, epidermal cell morphology, climate, Arctic, herbarium

Abstract

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) determines wind speed and direction, seasonal heat, moisture transport, storm tracks, cloudiness and sea-ice cover through atmospheric mass balance shifts between the Arctic and the subtropical Atlantic. The NAO is characterized by the typical, yet insufficiently understood, seesaw pattern of warmer winter and spring temperatures over Scandinavia and cooler temperatures over Greenland during the positive phase of the NAO, and vice versa during the negative phase. We tested the potential to reconstruct NAO variation beyond the meteorological record through the application of a microphenological proxy. We measured the Undulation Index (UI) in Betula nana epidermal cells from herbarium leaf samples and fossil peat fragments dating back to 1865—exceeding most meteorological records in the Arctic—to estimate imprints of spring thermal properties and NAO in Greenland and Finland. We found negative relations between Greenland UI and late winter, spring and early summer NAO, and mostly positive, but not significant, relations between Finland UI and NAO in years with pronounced NAO expression. The direction of the UI response in this common circumpolar species is, therefore, likely in line with the NAO seesaw effect, with leaf development response to NAO fluctuations in northern Europe opposing the response in Greenland and vice versa. Increased knowledge of the UI response to climate may contribute to understanding ecological properties of key Arctic species, whilst additionally providing a proxy for NAO dynamics.

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