Abstract
The level of Kluane Lake in southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, has fluctuated tens of metres during the late Holocene. Contributions of sediment from different watersheds in the basin over the past 5,000 years were inferred from the elemental geochemistry of Kluane Lake sediment cores. Elements associated with organic material and oxyhydroxides were used to reconstruct redox fluctuations in the hypolimnion of the lake. The data reveal complex relationships between climate and river discharge during the late Holocene. A period of influx of Duke River sediment coincides with a relatively warm climate around 1,300 years BP. Discharge of Slims River into Kluane Lake occurred when Kaskawulsh Glacier advanced to the present drainage divide separating flow to the Pacific Ocean via Kaskawulsh and Alsek rivers from flow to Bering Sea via tributaries of Yukon River. During periods when neither Duke nor Slims river discharged into Kluane Lake, the level of the lake was low and stable thermal stratification developed, with anoxic and eventually euxinic conditions in the hypolimnion.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Melanie Grubb and Robert Gilbert for valuable field and laboratory assistance, Rick Routledge and Carl Swartz for discussion of statistical methods, and Lito Arocena for analytical help. Research funding was provided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarship to Brahney; NSERC Discovery Grants to John Clague, Brian Menounos, and Tom Edwards; the Geological Society of America; and the Northern Scientific Training Program of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
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Brahney, J., Clague, J.J., Menounos, B. et al. Geochemical reconstruction of late Holocene drainage and mixing in Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory. J Paleolimnol 40, 489–505 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-007-9177-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-007-9177-z