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Holocene paleoenvironmental changes inferred from diatom assemblages in sediments of Kusawa Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Krish Chakraborty ,
Sarah A. Finkelstein ,
Joseph R. Desloges  and
Nicole A. Chow
Krish Chakraborty
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, Rm 5047, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3
Sarah A. Finkelstein*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, Rm 5047, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3
Joseph R. Desloges
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, Rm 5047, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3
Nicole A. Chow
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, Rm 5047, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail address:[email protected] (S.A. Finkelstein).
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Abstract

The southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, is an important region for recovering sensitive records of Holocene paleoclimatic change. More information is needed, however, to constrain the timing of the major Holocene climatic transitions, and to understand associated impacts on different ecosystems. For example, paleolimnological studies have focused on small lakes and ponds, but the history of large lakes has received little study. We analyzed diatom assemblages, species richness, valve concentrations, and biogenic silica, in the sediments of Kusawa Lake (60°16.5'N; 136°10.9'W; 671 m a.s.l.) to reconstruct the responses of this large (surface area = 142 km2), deep (Zmax = 135 m) freshwater ecosystem to Holocene climatic transitions. Diatoms colonized the lake soon after ice retreat, around 11,000 cal yr BP; assemblages throughout the record were dominated by planktonic types. Diatom concentrations and biogenic silica were high during the Holocene Thermal Maximum between 10,700 and 7300 cal yr BP, then began to decrease in response to cooling associated with orbitally driven reductions in insolation. Diatom assemblages shifted towards taxa with lower surface water temperature optima after 8300 cal yr BP, perhaps in response to abrupt and progressive cooling. Our study confirms that diatom assemblages in large lakes are sensitive to regional-scale paleoclimatic changes.

Keywords

Biogenic silicaHolocene Thermal MaximumPaleoproductivityLake sedimentsPaleoclimatologyDiatomsYukon TerritoryThe Sub-arctic
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , July 2010 , pp. 15 - 22
Copyright
University of Washington

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