Airborne Pollen: A Unique Air Mass Tracer, Its Influx to the Canadian High Arctic

Abstract

A study of pollen grain concentration in surface snow and ice cores at 15 sites in the Canadian high Arctic and one site near the tree line, together with published pollen deposition rates south of the tree line has shown long-range dispersal of pollen from the boreal forest to the limits of our area on the Arctic Ocean close to Svalbard and the North Pole. There are no discernible trends of deposition rates within the high Arctic which suggests extremely long trajectories with strong zonal components; some of the pollen may have an Eurasian source. We relate the trajectories to synoptic patterns in the mid- and high Arctic.