Collaborative Research: Paleohydrology Across Central Alaska: A Multiproxy Approach to Lake-Level Records

Investigator: Mark B. Abbott mabbott@geo.umass.edu  (Principal Investigator current)

Abstract

ATM-9707625  Abbott, Mark B.  University of Massachusetts    ATM-9709398 Finney, Bruce P.  University of Alaska    Title: Paleohydrology Across Central Alaska: A Multiproxy Approach  to Lake-Level Records    The primary objective of this project is to produce new multi-proxy  paleoclimate records from Central Alaska to test hypotheses  concerning the cause of shifts in the precipitation-evaporation  balance from 18 ka to present.  The award supports research to: (i)  expand the network of sites with decadal to century-scale lake-  level data to identify the spatial and temporal pattern of changes  in the precipitation-evaporation balance and (ii) identify  fluctuations in the moisture balance for the past 2000 years at  annual to decadal-scale from closed basin Dune Lake.  These records  are needed to understand the long-term atmospheric dynamics of the  Arctic and to assess the significance of shifts in the  precipitation-evaporation balance.  The Holocene climate history of  the region will be reconstructed with a series of studies analyzing  the sedimentology, geochemistry, magnetic properties, pollen  content, stable isotopic composition, and for the first time in the  Arctic, biomarker compounds.  The lake cores will be dated at high-  resolution by 137Cs, 210Pb and AMS 14C measurements on macrofossils and  pollen.