Ep124 - Reconstructing 13,000 years of sea ice extent in the Canadian Arctic

In this episode, we talk with Madeleine Santos about her study on how sea ice in the Canadian Arctic has changed over the past 13,000 years and what it tells us about where the Arctic is headed. By analyzing lipid biomarkers — chemical compounds preserved in seafloor sediments that serve as fingerprints of past environmental conditions — from two sediment cores collected from the Beaufort Sea, the study reconstructed sea ice cover, sea surface temperatures, salinity, and terrestrial input throughout the Holocene.

📚Reference: Santos M, Bröder L, O'Regan M, Hernández-Almeida I, Tesi T, Bigler L, Haghipour N, Nelson DB, Fritz M, Lattaud J. 2026. Holocene sea ice and paleoenvironment conditions in the Beaufort Sea (Canadian Arctic) reconstructed with lipid biomarkers. Climate of the Past. 22:187–203.