https://www.wandeldal.org/home daily 1.0 2022-04-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645042044271-L1T8E2HPNCPV9F429G2K/NERC-logo.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/87c4eba9-44a9-4ec7-8774-71d6ad1045d1/NSF_4-Color_bitmap_Logo.png Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/71273a87-89c9-4e94-9361-0be8f978a2a6/Logo+KA-ENG+%281%29.jpg Home https://www.wandeldal.org/our-team daily 0.75 2022-09-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645026519166-UIOG90IBYG9HQKGEHBCR/Ray%2Bin%2BSvalbard.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645034476453-UTLSRQC2L4X9889JX6HF/NickB.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645034813945-422ZTLF0QM44F696Q0O3/ISUAnuka2009%252B154.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645035204183-A0LVXU1616DKRPMX4A2R/bbp_biopic.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645035832028-DOQ8WGHGGY4L4KG31XTS/Bio%252Bphoto%252B1.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645035997131-4AVUSE14R2UEWGE1K5D1/April2010-%2B165.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1648120968750-MEO1O8CLILRU3XIVRPA9/Aart+Verhage.jpeg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1648121530734-Q3G9Z1OSM5K28GF0N8PW/image001.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1648121762171-12T3NM2WBPT48BTFZ1JX/P1023623.JPG Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1648131505242-NPEZSC7S138DIY34YP60/DSC_0406.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1648138670598-2QMMIWEFV1WX4YLZY9C5/IMG-0267.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1648212450497-5FOONJIZOE4ZRLP4PVSY/Alsos_field_coring_20190904_123134.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1649172594291-DQLQYW7QHK7IOJIXG5V3/francois.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1651144860058-XQ4WWMSLT6C4LOL9HTSD/Dom.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1653396347383-HV95JPVZUCTC0RX48LGJ/20220504-165320.jpg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/011550dd-0b43-4ecb-9dc0-57afc5d9b502/Redmond+Stein+Greenland+2022.png Our Team https://www.wandeldal.org/background daily 0.75 2022-09-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/cb2623c2-5260-4553-873b-21739ca02bf6/Greenland.A2002184.1825.500m.jpg Background - Background People first travelled to this part of Greenland, Tunup Avannaarsua, or the Great North of East Greenland, around 4500 years ago . They were the ancient people who formed the first wave of migration from Alaska across the Canadian Arctic into Northern Greenland, eventually settling in what we are calling Inutoqqat Nunaat, the “Land of the Ancient People”, the area around Wandel Dal and Independence Fjord. From dated artefacts, we know that people first lived in Wandel Dal between 4500-3850 years before present (BP) and again between 2900-2250 years BP. After 2250 years BP, the region was completely abandoned, except for intermittent, short-term use by Thule people, the ancestors of modern Inuit, in the last ~600 years. We also know from archaeological remains that there would have been abundant muskoxen, hares, foxes, birds and char in this “high arctic oasis” during the time they were there. However, much of the history of these northernmost people on the planet, including their settlement, use, and the reasons for their abandonment of the region, remains a mystery. We hypothesize that past favourable climates (warm, stable) and abundant hunting resources would have been critical to sustain life at these latitudes and that climate and environmental changes in the last ~5000 years would have been a critical component in the migration of people in and out of this region. With this project, our interdisciplinary team seeks to understand the climate history of Inutoqqat Nunaat and to place the ancient occupation of Wandel Dal into a broader climate perspective. Using the shores of Nedre Midsommersø (Lower Midsummer Lake) as our base, we will retrieve and analyze lake sediment cores from the lake (and nearby lakes) to understand the ~5000-year climate history of this region including temperature, rainfall, lake ice cover, as well as the presence of terrestrial plants and animals. We will also map the key archaeological features of the lake and adjacent fjord, and better constrain the timing of these sites and their occupation. Together with modelling, we will develop a comprehensive understanding of the human-climate interactions in Wandel Dal and how they relate to broader shifts in glacier fluctuations, ocean circulation, and polynya dynamics, and the Holocene climate history of the Arctic. https://www.wandeldal.org/contact daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645042044271-L1T8E2HPNCPV9F429G2K/NERC-logo.jpg Contact https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/87c4eba9-44a9-4ec7-8774-71d6ad1045d1/NSF_4-Color_bitmap_Logo.png Contact https://www.wandeldal.org/new-page daily 0.75 2024-09-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/1645113851009-BVMXU93TLABTZAXOYAXZ/D4FC03A7-99CC-482F-A5F5-D7FC3C26F857.jpeg News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/71e30798-f9b1-44f4-a586-f8423d8a81fb/Screen+Shot+2022-09-23+at+9.33.27+AM.png News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/b8190dfa-fd24-49b5-9ebc-4e5307b0280f/730FEE05-E627-4FD7-9D6B-CB10BD7ABC3C.jpeg News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/ee3c9272-2d9d-49b8-be1b-3c6999320b76/5A5135A0-EA90-47C7-B57D-44F84DBBC996.jpg News https://www.wandeldal.org/general-1 daily 0.75 2022-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/4495b959-b7ec-49d2-80f5-8d1f2d293754/FDF08213-93BF-48A8-8E58-D530750653A6.jpeg What we do - Archaeology Surveying by drone, our team will create detailed new maps of archeological resources along Wandel Dal, focusing initially on the area around Pearylandville beside Nedre Misommersø (Lower Midsummer Lake) and Deltaterrasserne in Jørgen Brønlund Fjord. Together with additional radiocarbon dates on archeological materials already archived in Nuuk and Copenhagen, we will refine the history and geographical extent of the occupation of Wandel Dal and adjacent areas. In addition to supporting the objectives of this project, the survey will provide help designate the area around Wandel Dal as a National Heritage Site. key people: Fuuja Larsen, Hans Lange, Inaluk Schmidt Jacobsen, Christian Koch Madsen photo: Independence I (Paleo-Inuit) bifaces from Pearylandville (Ole Woldbye) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/c89f4d6d-36b2-4770-a223-c8bc699045cf/LSW-21-II%26III_core_correlation.jpg What we do - Lake sediments Lake sediments provide a continuous archive of the climate and environmental histories of lakes, catchments, and regions. Our lake sediment work will focus on retrieving ~5000 year records from Nedre Midsommersø (Lower Midsummer Lake) and nearby lakes using piston and gravity cores from floating platforms. Once home, the cores will be scanned using a CT scanner to document their sedimentology and stratigraphy at the sub-mm scale. Cores will also be scanned on a GEOTEK multi-sensor core logger to get line-scan images, magnetic susceptibility, and spectral reflectance data. Elemental profiles will be obtained using an ITRAX XRF core scanner. Then we subsample the core for different analyses. They can be split into different groups: chronology: plant material will be radiocarbon dated to constrain the age of the sediments and develop reliable age-depth models. paleoecology: we will analyze the fossil diatoms, pollen and spores, chironomids, and sedimentary ancient DNA. They will tell us about past plant and animal life, ice cover, and aquatic productivity. paleothermometry: Using lipid biomarkers (alkenones, brGDGTs, and plant waxes) and chironomids, we will develop multiple quantitative temperature records using these well-established approaches. paleohydrology: differences between reconstructed hydrogen isotopic values of precipitation from leaf waxes and the above temperature reconstructions can tell us about changes in moisture-source through time, sea ice extent, and the seasonality of precipitation. key people: Ray Bradley, Billy D’Andrea, Nick Balascio, Bianca Perren, Jostein Bakke, Aart Verhage, François Lapointe, Tobi Schneider, Inger Alsos, Donna Francis, Scott Anderson photo: CT scan of a lake sediment core from Lake SW (aka Lake Tobias) near Wandel Dal showing core colour and density changes. Depth scale is in mm. (Tobi Schneider) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6205366ea594a4661e8e7ffa/d00ed4a4-edf4-466e-bcca-ec55203c820c/P1012154.JPG What we do - Modelling We will model past sea ice and ocean circulation in order to understand the availability of open water in the region and role that ocean circulation may have had in Paleo-Inuit migration. We will simulate how the location, extent, and duration of polynyas around northern Greenland varied during the late Holocene (last ~5000 years) and how these changes could have provided or restricted opportunities for Paleo-Inuit to hunt marine mammals and use ice-bridge corridors for migration. key people: Alan Condron photo: glacier tongue and outlet rivers, Wandel Dal (Tobi Schneider) https://www.wandeldal.org/donate daily 0.75 2025-05-12