Multidisciplinary Investigations of Alpine Ice Patches in Southwest Yukon, Canada: Paleoenvironmental and Paleobiological Investigations

• Main Authors: Sheila Greer, Ruth Gotthardt
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Key words; Rangifer tarandus; permanent snowfields; climate change; Holocene mammals; Little Ice Age; Canada; Yukon; Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.595.7140; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic57-3-247.pdf

ABSTRACT. Since the discovery of dung-rich alpine ice patches in southwest Yukon in 1997, continuing multidisciplinary studies have provided a unique window on the biology, climate, and hunting activity in this region over much of the Holocene. Aerial surveys have identified 72 ice patches of variable size, and 65 patches have been ground-surveyed for organic remains. Of these, 35 yielded an abundance of biological specimens, including caribou and other rare large mammal remains, mummified small mammals and birds, and artifacts spanning 8000 years. The dung provides pollen and plant macrofossils for analysis and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, as well as dietary, genetic, and parasitic information. Stratigraphically controlled sampling of dung within ice layers has yielded a geochronology placing their formation as early as 8300 to 8000 years BP. Ice patch