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Reconstructing postglacial hydrologic and environmental change in the eastern Kenai Peninsula lowlands using proxy data and mass balance modeling

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Andrew HendersonORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).


Abstract

Despite extensive paleoenvironmental research on the postglacial history of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, uncertainties remain regarding the region's deglaciation, vegetation development, and past hydroclimate. To elucidate this complex environmental history, we present new proxy datasets from Hidden and Kelly lakes, located in the eastern Kenai lowlands at the foot of the Kenai Mountains, including sedimentological properties (magnetic susceptibility, organic matter, grain size, and biogenic silica), pollen and macrofossils, diatom assemblages, and diatom oxygen isotopes. We use a simple hydrologic and isotope mass balance model to constrain interpretations of the diatom oxygen isotope data. Results reveal that glacier ice retreated from Hidden Lake's headwaters by ca. 13.1 cal ka BP, and that groundwater was an important component of Kelly Lake's hydrologic budget in the Early Holocene. As the forest developed and the climate became wetter in the Middle to Late Holocene, Kelly Lake reached or exceeded its modern level. In the last ca. 75 years, rising temperature caused rapid changes in biogenic silica content and diatom oxygen isotope values. Our findings demonstrate the utility of mass balance modeling to constrain interpretations of paleolimnologic oxygen isotope data, and that groundwater can exert a strong influence on lake water isotopes, potentially confounding interpretations of regional climate.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Broadman E, Kaufman DS, Anderson RS, Bogle S, Ford M, Fortin D, Henderson ACG, Lacey JH, Leng MJ, McKay NP, Muñoz SE

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Quaternary Research

Year: 2022

Volume: 107

Pages: 1-26

Print publication date: 01/05/2022

Online publication date: 15/03/2022

Acceptance date: 24/01/2022

Date deposited: 06/04/2022

ISSN (print): 0033-5894

ISSN (electronic): 1096-0287

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2021.75

DOI: 10.1017/qua.2021.75

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/zr0j-9243


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
1602106
GSA Limnogeology Division, the Phycological Society of America
School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University

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