Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:20:33.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene storminess inferred from sediments of two lakes on Adak Island, Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Anne C.L. Krawiec  and
Darrell S. Kaufman
Anne C.L. Krawiec
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099, USA
Darrell S. Kaufman*
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099, USA
*
* Corresponding author.E-mail address:[email protected] (D.S. Kaufman).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The abundance of sedimentary organic material from two lakes was used to infer past Holocene storminess on Adak Island where frequent storms generate abundant rainfall and extensive cloud cover. Andrew and Heart Lakes are located 10 km apart; their contrasting physical characteristics cause the sedimentary organic matter to respond differently to storms. Their records were synchronized using correlated tephra beds. Sedimentation rates increased between 4.0 and 3.5 ka in both lakes. Over the instrumental period, Andrew Lake biogenic-silica content (BSi) is most strongly correlated with winter sunlight availability, which influences photosynthetic production, and river input, which influences the dilution of BSi by mineral matter. Heart Lake BSi is likely affected by wind-driven remobilization of sediment, as suggested by correlations among BSi, the North Pacific Index, and winter storminess. The results indicate relatively stormy conditions from 9.6 to 4.0 ka, followed by drying between 4.0 and 2.7 ka, with the driest conditions from 2.7 to 1.5 ka. The stormiest period was between AD 500 and 1200, then drying from 1150 to 1500 and more variable until 1850. This record of Holocene storminess fills a major gap at the center of action for North Pacific wintertime climate.

Keywords

Holocene storminessBiogenic silicaInferred chlorophyll-aAdak IslandLake sediments
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 82 , Issue 1 , July 2014 , pp. 73 - 84
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, N.T. Diatoms, temperature and climatic change. Eur. J. Phycol. 35, (2000). 307–314.Google Scholar
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P., and Burns, S.J. “Regional atmospheric circulation change in the North Pacific during the Holocene inferred from lacustrine carbonate oxygen isotopes, Yukon Territory, Canada”. Quaternary Research 64, 21–35: Erratum. Quat. Res. 65, (2005). 350–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, N.J., Liversidge, A.C., McGowan, S., and Jones, M.D. Lake and catchment response to Holocene environmental change: spatial variability along a climate gradient in southwest Greenland. J. Paleolimnol. 48, (2012). 209–222.Google Scholar
Balascio, N.L., and Bradley, R.S. Evaluating Holocene climate change in northern Norway using sediment records from two contrasting lake systems. J. Paleolimnol. 48, (2012). 259–273.Google Scholar
Blaauw, M. Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modeling of radiocarbon sequences. Quat. Geochronol. 5, (2010). 512–518.Google Scholar
Black, R.F. Late Quaternary glacial events, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Easterbrook, D.D., and Sibrava, V. Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere. IUGS-UNESCO International Geological Correlations Program, Project 73-1-24. (1976). International Union of Quaternary Research, Bellingham. 285–301.Google Scholar
Black, R.F. Isostatic, tectonic, and eustatic movements of sea level in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Morner, N. Earth Rheology, Isostasy, and Eustasy. (1980). J. Wiley & Sons, 231–248.Google Scholar
Black, R.F. Holocene sea-level changes in the Aleutian Islands: new data from Atka Island. Colquhoun, D.J. Holocene Sea Level Fluctuations, Magnitude and Causes. International Geological Congress, Publication 0061, (1982). 1–12.Google Scholar
Bretherton, C., Widmann, M., Dymnikov, V., Wallace, J., and Blade, I. The effective number of spatial degrees of freedom of a time-varying field. J. Clim. 12, (1999). 1990–2009.Google Scholar
Carignan, K.S., Taylor, L.A., Earkins, B.W., Warnken, R.R., Medley, P.R., and Lim, E. Digital elevation model of Adak Island, Alaska: procedures, data sources and analysis. NOAA Technical Memorandum NESDIS NGDC-31. (2009). U.S. Department of Commerce, Boulder, CO. 29 Google Scholar
Corbett, L.B., and Munroe, J.S. Investigating the influence of hydrogeomorphic setting on the response of lake sedimentation to climatic changes in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. J. Paleolimnol. 44, (2010). 311–325.Google Scholar
Corbett, D., West, D., and Lefevre, C. The People at the End of the World: The Western Aleutian Project and the Archeology of Shemya Island. (2010). Alaska Anthropological Association Monograph Series VIII, Google Scholar
de Fontaine, C.S., Kaufman, D.S., Anderson, R.S., Werner, A., Waythomas, C.F., and Brown, T.A. Late Quaternary distal tephra-fall deposits in lacustrine sediments, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Quat. Res. 68, (2007). 64–78.Google Scholar
Dugan, H.A., Lamoureux, S.F., Lewis, T., and Lafreniere, M.J. The impact of permafrost disturbances and sediment loading on the limnological characteristics of two high Arctic lakes. Permafr. Periglac. Process. 23, (2012). 119–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, D., Osterberg, E., Dyke, A., Dahl-Jensen, D., Demuth, M., Zdanowicz, C., Bourgeois, J., Koerner, R.M., Mayewski, P., Wake, C. et al. The Mt Logan Holocene–Late Wisconsinan isotope record: tropical Pacific–Yukon connections. The Holocene 18, (2008). 667–677.Google Scholar
Frechette, B., de Vernal, A., and Richard, P.J.H. Holocene and last interglacial cloudiness in eastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Can. J. Earth Sci. 45, (2008). 1221–1234.Google Scholar
Funk, J.M. Late Quaternary Geology of Cold Bay, Alaska, and Vicinity. (M.S. Thesis) (1973). University of Connecticut, (45 pp.)Google Scholar
Geirsdóttir, Á., Miller, G.H., Thordarson, T., and Olafsdóttir, K.B. A 2000 year record of climate variations reconstructed from Haukadalsvatn, west Iceland. J. Paleolimnol. 41, (2009). 95–115.Google Scholar
Gilbert, R. Spatially irregular sedimentation in a small, morphologically complex lake: implications for paleoenvironmental studies. J. Paleolimnol. 29, (2003). 209–220.Google Scholar
Hetzinger, S., Halfar, J., Mecking, J.V., Keenlyside, N.S., Kronz, A., Steneck, R.S., Adey, W.H., and Lebednik, P.A. Marine proxy evidence linking decadal North Pacific and Atlantic climate. Clim. Dyn. 39, (2012). 1447–1455.Google Scholar
Heusser, C.J. Post-glacial vegetation on Adak Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 105, (1978). 18–23.Google Scholar
Krawiec, A.C.L. Holocene Tephrochronology and Storminess Inferred from Two Lakes on Adak Island, Alaska. (M.S. Thesis) (2013). Northern Arizona University, (109 pp., http://gradworks.umi.com/15/37/1537790.html)Google Scholar
Krawiec, A.C.L., Kaufman, D.S., and Vaillencourt, D.A. Age models and tephrostratigraphy from two lakes on Adak Island, Alaska. Quat. Geochronol. 18, (2013). 41–53.Google Scholar
MacDonald, G., and Case, R. Variations in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation over the past millennium. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, (2005). L08703 Google Scholar
Michelutti, N., Blais, J.M., Cumming, B.F., Paterson, A.M., Ruhland, K., Wolfe, A.P., and Smol, J.P. Do spectrally inferred determinations of chlorophyll-a reflect trends in lake trophic status?. J. Paleolimnol. 43, (2010). 205–217.Google Scholar
Mortlock, R.A., and Froelich, P.N. A simple method for the rapid determination of biogenic opal in pelagic marine-sediments. Deep Sea Res. Part A Oceanogr. Res. Pap. 36, (1989). 1415–1426.Google Scholar
Munroe, J.S. Lacustrine records of post-glacial environmental change from the Nulhegan Basin, Vermont, USA. J. Quat. Sci. 27, (2012). 639–648.Google Scholar
Paillard, D., Labeyrie, L., and Yiou, P. Macintosh program performs time-series analysis. Eos Trans. Am. Geophys. Union Sci. Rep. 77, (1996). (379–379) Google Scholar
Rodionov, S., Overland, J., and Bond, N. Spatial and temporal variability of the Aleutian Climate. Fish. Oceanogr. 14, (2005). 3–21.Google Scholar
Ryves, D.B., Battarbee, R.W., Juggins, S., Fritz, S.C., and Anderson, N.J. Physical and chemical predictors of diatom dissolution in freshwater and saline lake sediments in North America and West Greenland. Limnol. Oceanogr. 51, (2006). 1355–1368.Google Scholar
Salathé, E.P. Jr. Influences of a shift in North Pacific storm tracks on western North American precipitation under global warming. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, (2006). L19820 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savinetsky, A.B., West, D.L., Antipushina, Z.A., Khassanov, B.F., Kiseleva, N.K., Krylovich, O.A., and Pereladov, A.M. The reconstruction of ecosystems history of Adak Island (Aleutian Islands) during the Holocene. West, D.L., Hatfield, V., Wilmerding, E., Lefevre, C., and Gualtieri, L. The People Before: The Geology, Paleoecology and Archaeology of Adak Island, Alaska. (2012). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, UK. 61–75.Google Scholar
Smol, J., and Cumming, B. Tracking long-term changes in climate using algal indicators in lake sediments. J. Phycol. 36, (2000). 986–1011.Google Scholar
Stabeno, P.J., Hunt, G.L., Napp, J.M., and Schmacher, J.D. Physical forcing of ecosystem dynamics on the Bering Sea Shelf. Robinson, A.R., Brink, K. The Sea vol. 14, (2005). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, USA. (Chapter 30) Google Scholar
Thorson, R.M., and Hamilton, T.D. Glacial geology of the Aleutian Islands. Hamilton, T.D., Reed, K.M., and Thorson, R.M. Glaciation in Alaska — The Geologic Record. (1986). Alaska Geological Society, 151–170.Google Scholar
Trenberth, K.E., and Hurrell, J.W. Decadal atmosphere–ocean variations in the Pacific. Clim. Dyn. 9, (1994). 303–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaillencourt, D.A. Five-thousand Years of Hydroclimate Variability on Adak Island, Alaska Inferred from δD of n-Alkanoic Acids. (M.S. Thesis) (2013). Northern Arizona University, (92 pp.)Google Scholar
von Gunten, L., D'Andrea, W.J., Bradley, R.S., and Huang, Y. Proxy-to-proxy calibration: increasing the temporal resolution of quantitative climate reconstructions. Sci. Rep. 2, (2012). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep00609 Google Scholar
von Gunten, L., Grosjean, M., Kamenik, C., Fujak, M., and Urrutia, R. Calibrating biogeochemical and physical climate proxies from non-varved lake sediments with meteorological data: methods and case studies. J. Paleolimnol. 47, (2012). 583–600.Google Scholar
Waythomas, C.F., Miller, T.P., and Kiriyanov, V.Y. Post-glacial Evolution of Northern Adak Island, Alaska. (1994). American Quaternary Association Program and Abstracts, Minneapolis, MN. 179 (June 19–22, 1994 13) Google Scholar
Wetzel, R.G. Limnology: Lake and River Ecosystems. (2001). Academic Press, San Diego, CA, USA.Google Scholar
Wolfe, A.P., Vinebrooke, R.D., Michelutti, N., Rivard, B., and Das, B. Experimental calibration of lake-sediment spectral reflectance to chlorophyll-a concentrations: methodology and paleolimnological validation. J. Paleolimnol. 36, (2006). 91–100.Google Scholar