ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a few thoughts about aspects of the ancient Arctic climate, but these are limited to the carbon cycle and are inspired by the presence of the rich ancient later Cretaceous dinosaur record found in Alaska. The role of paleontology in framing the original questions about changes in climate is worth reviewing. Reconstructions of past climates have a venerable history. As paleontologists and climatologists can attest, climates have changed, sometimes radically, over the course of geologic time. Climate systems result from geophysical and geochemical feedbacks among atmospheric composition, oceans, topography, vegetation, cloud cover, moisture, and biomass. Wildfire is a contributor to the landscape processes that form a dynamic boundary contributing to climate. The disturbance and destabilization of the landscape caused by fire impacts the partitioning of incoming solar radiation and directly effects the introduction of carbon into the atmosphere.
