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SAN FRANCISCO – When rangers come across mummified wood uncovered by a melting glacier in the northernmost Arctic stretch of Canada , they had no idea they were staring at an ancient forest go steady back millions of years . researcher finally regain a twisted tangle of preserved tree diagram that reflects a harsh conflict to survive during an ancient planetary cooling period .
The spindly trees would have scarce hang on during a time when the Arctic climate changed from greenhouse to icehouse , on top of enduring darkness for one-half of each year . planetary house of stress are evident in narrow tree rings and undersize leaves that were preserved at the clip of decease – when a landslip may have bury the tree alive . [ Image of mummy foliage ]
The remains of a mummified forest that lived on Ellesmere Island in Canada some 2 to 8 million years ago, when the Arctic was cooling. The remains could offer clues to how today’s Arctic will respond to global warming.
" We know the climate was really hitting the sports fan for these bozo , " said Joel Barker , a biogeochemist at the Byrd Polar Research Center of Ohio State University .
Barker discussed the find here at the 2010 fall group meeting of the American Geophysical Union . His mathematical group ’s uncovering in Ellesmere Island National Park represent the northernmost mummify forest situation in Canada .
Making a tree mummy
Mummified tree end up keep up because they were dried out – similar to how Egyptian mummies were created . That means the 2 - million - class - old tree stay on can still burn , if anyone was looking for some ancient firewood .
" I essay to dry some wood sampling in a furnace , " Barker explain . " I accidentally set up the temperature too high , and they caught firing . "
Such tree mummies are unlike the petrified timber incur in other parts of the world , where mineral deposits from water slowly interchange woods with hard rock .
Several regions of the Arctic have mummified forests . But the latest site stand out because it contains just a few hardy tree specie such as birch and spruce — a testament to the northernmost site ’s exposure to the ancient change climate .
" Species diversity elsewhere is quite high , " Barker say . " In our site , the trees were survive right on the edge and shinny to survive . "
Life on the edge
The site sit down in an upper Arctic region that change to a scrubby , treeless landscape painting about 2 million old age ago , and so investigator know the mummified trees must be at least that erstwhile . There are also no star sign of the previously commonMetasequoiaredwood trees that vanish in the area around 10 million old age ago , which devote the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree mom an upper eld limit point .
The thawing permafrost and retreating glacier driven by spheric heating have help expose mummified Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in more recent time , but many sites likely remain unexplored in the vast Arctic wilderness .
Barker only found the latest site after being tip off by a park warden in 2009 . He and his colleagues flew back in the summer of 2010 by hopping from metropolis to metropolis , and then switch over to a Twin Otter light aircraft before steer to the site in a helicopter .
get up there
The researchers were hie against prison term , because they had a planned field of operations season of just two weeks . But foggy weather keep back them grounded in Nunavut , Canada , for a calendar week , which leave them with just four day by the meter they reached Ellesmere Island National Park .
" We drop our prison term just run around , " Barker told LiveScience . " We pulled farseeing days . "
They managed to gather what they reckon as representative samples of the mummified tree branch , roots and leave-taking , as well as large quantity to try out back in the science laboratory . But they also hope to go back with a unsubtle group of experts and spend at least one month on - website .
Chemical and DNA analyses of the tree mummy samples is on-going as the researchers endeavor to better realize the conditions at the prison term . Eventually , they trust to start the level of what happened to the trees in reverse and compute out how the Arctic environment will adapt to the warming public of today .
" I think there ’s so much work that can be done here , and we need to do that , " Barker said .
you may keep an eye on LiveScience Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @ScienceHsu .
