Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake
Despite recent progress in understanding high-latitude climate variability, paleoclimate records are scarce from the Alaskan Arctic. We conducted isotopic and sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake to infer Holocene climate variability in northeastern Alaska. Water δ 18 O and δD values from the lake and it...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0959683617702230 2024-04-28T08:09:59+00:00 Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake Vachula, Richard S Chipman, Melissa L Hu, Feng Sheng National Science Foundation 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683617702230 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683617702230 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683617702230 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license The Holocene volume 27, issue 11, page 1631-1644 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change journal-article 2017 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683617702230 2024-04-09T08:02:50Z Despite recent progress in understanding high-latitude climate variability, paleoclimate records are scarce from the Alaskan Arctic. We conducted isotopic and sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake to infer Holocene climate variability in northeastern Alaska. Water δ 18 O and δD values from the lake and its inlet/outlet streams suggest that winter precipitation dominates modern water inputs and that evaporation has limited influence on the lake’s hydrological budget. The isotopic composition of Pisidium exhibits marked variations during the past 11,500 years, with δ 18 O ranging between −18.7‰ and −16.2‰ and δ 13 C between −7.1‰ and −2.3‰ (Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (VPDB)). Elevated δ 18 O and sediment composition from 11.5 to 8.9 kcal. BP suggest evaporative 18 O enrichment and arid conditions. Rising lake levels are evidenced by the disappearance of Pisidium and a transition to low-carbonate gyttja ca. 6.3 kcal. BP and by the onset of sediment deposition on an adjacent shelf by 5.3 kcal. BP. These changes coincided with enhanced effective moisture in interior and southern Alaska as inferred from lake-level records and may be related to broad-scale atmospheric circulation changes. In the shelf sediments, carbonate abundance increases markedly at 3.5 kcal. BP, and δ 18 O increases from −18.0‰ to −16.5‰ at 2.1 kcal. BP, possibly resulting from increased temperature and/or summer precipitation. After 2.1 kcal. BP, δ 18 O fluctuates with an overall decreasing trend to −17.2‰ at 0.9 kcal. BP. Late-Holocene variations in our δ 18 O record display coherent patterns with regional glacier fluctuations at centennial to millennial scales, suggesting that δ 18 O minima were related to a combination of low temperatures and enhanced winter snowfall. Holocene variations in organic matter abundance at Wahoo Lake also show broad similarities to total solar irradiance, implying that suborbital solar variability played a role in modulating regional climate and aquatic productivity. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic glacier Alaska SAGE Publications The Holocene 27 11 1631 1644 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
SAGE Publications |
op_collection_id |
crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
spellingShingle |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change Vachula, Richard S Chipman, Melissa L Hu, Feng Sheng Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake |
topic_facet |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
description |
Despite recent progress in understanding high-latitude climate variability, paleoclimate records are scarce from the Alaskan Arctic. We conducted isotopic and sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake to infer Holocene climate variability in northeastern Alaska. Water δ 18 O and δD values from the lake and its inlet/outlet streams suggest that winter precipitation dominates modern water inputs and that evaporation has limited influence on the lake’s hydrological budget. The isotopic composition of Pisidium exhibits marked variations during the past 11,500 years, with δ 18 O ranging between −18.7‰ and −16.2‰ and δ 13 C between −7.1‰ and −2.3‰ (Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (VPDB)). Elevated δ 18 O and sediment composition from 11.5 to 8.9 kcal. BP suggest evaporative 18 O enrichment and arid conditions. Rising lake levels are evidenced by the disappearance of Pisidium and a transition to low-carbonate gyttja ca. 6.3 kcal. BP and by the onset of sediment deposition on an adjacent shelf by 5.3 kcal. BP. These changes coincided with enhanced effective moisture in interior and southern Alaska as inferred from lake-level records and may be related to broad-scale atmospheric circulation changes. In the shelf sediments, carbonate abundance increases markedly at 3.5 kcal. BP, and δ 18 O increases from −18.0‰ to −16.5‰ at 2.1 kcal. BP, possibly resulting from increased temperature and/or summer precipitation. After 2.1 kcal. BP, δ 18 O fluctuates with an overall decreasing trend to −17.2‰ at 0.9 kcal. BP. Late-Holocene variations in our δ 18 O record display coherent patterns with regional glacier fluctuations at centennial to millennial scales, suggesting that δ 18 O minima were related to a combination of low temperatures and enhanced winter snowfall. Holocene variations in organic matter abundance at Wahoo Lake also show broad similarities to total solar irradiance, implying that suborbital solar variability played a role in modulating regional climate and aquatic productivity. |
author2 |
National Science Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vachula, Richard S Chipman, Melissa L Hu, Feng Sheng |
author_facet |
Vachula, Richard S Chipman, Melissa L Hu, Feng Sheng |
author_sort |
Vachula, Richard S |
title |
Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake |
title_short |
Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake |
title_full |
Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake |
title_fullStr |
Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake |
title_full_unstemmed |
Holocene climatic change in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at Wahoo Lake |
title_sort |
holocene climatic change in the alaskan arctic as inferred from oxygen-isotope and lake-sediment analyses at wahoo lake |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683617702230 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683617702230 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683617702230 |
genre |
Arctic glacier Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic glacier Alaska |
op_source |
The Holocene volume 27, issue 11, page 1631-1644 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683617702230 |
container_title |
The Holocene |
container_volume |
27 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
1631 |
op_container_end_page |
1644 |
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1797578098241175552 |