A dendrochronological analysis of driftwood in the Northern Dvina delta and on northern Novaya Zemlya

Analysis of the wood anatomy of modem driftwood logs deposited by the Northern Dvina River, Russia, reveals nearly identical amounts of Picea and Pinus in contrast to the driftwood deposits in the European Arctic, which are dominated by Pinus. Two Picea and two Pinus driftwood chronologies that were constructed could be cross-dated with several chronologies available from the drainage area of the Northern Dvina as well as with driftwood chronologies from Jan Mayen in the Greenland Sea or the Barents Sea coast of north Norway. The degree of cross dating indicates that two major source areas are represented among the driftwood logs examined, i.e., the lower part of the Pinega drainage basin and the eastern central part of the province of Archangel. The origin suggested corresponds with the development of the important logging areas. Driftwood pine and spruce logs from northern Novaya Zemlya cross-dated with chronologies from northwest Russia and the Lower Angara region reveal a transport of ice-rafted wood between the Barents Sea and the northern Kara Sea. Two dispersal routes of driftwood from northwest Russia to locations in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian and Greenland Sea are proposed, via an counter-clockwise circulation in the Barents Sea and via export of drift ice to the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya.