The project will provide a detailed reconstruction of changes in climate, environment and sea-ice cover in the inner part of the Godthåbsfjord region and their impacts on Arctic human societies during the Norse settlement period. A continuous climatic record covering the last 5000 years will be constructed with a special focus on the past 1000 years, i.e. during Norse settlement in Greenland. The investigations will be based on marine geological surveys, oceanography studies, supplemented by analysis of the cultural landscape. The data collected will summarize the changes of these parameters in order to show how environmental and climate changes over time have affected the living conditions of the cultures settled in various parts of the two fjord systems.  Thus, the project will focus on describing factors that have impacted human settlements in the fjord region, including the rapid changes in relative sea level, variations in the distribution and thickness of fjord sea ice, dynamics of the tidewater glacier, KNS and the general impact of changes in ocean circulation. This interdisciplinary approach will contribute to the understanding of the biophysical environments and social-ecological systems, where resilience is the main theory in focus.

This applied sub-project will be focus on the coring of marine sediment cores in the Kangersuneq fjord. Sedimentological analysis of marine sediment cores will contribute to reconstructions and the understanding of changing environments and ice patterns.

Site: Sanna cruise, Godthåbsfjorden, Nuuk, Greenland

PI: Ann Eileen Lennert