Anderson L. author Finney B.P. author Guldager N. author Rover Jennifer A. author Shapley M.D. author Van Sistine D.R. author 2010 American Geophysical Union Washington, D.C. 13-17 December 2010 FY 2011 The Yukon Flats is the region surrounding the confluence of the Porcupine, Sheenjek, Christian, Chandalar, and Yukon Rivers including approximately 20,000 lakes. It is a diverse boreal mosaic landscape (~23,000 km2) that provides spring and summer habitat for over 150 bird species. The climate of the area is continental with severe winter temperatures and warm summers. High effective moisture deficits relative to most boreal environments lead to the unique occurrence of evaporite mineral deposits as well as the highest incidence of naturally occurring wildfires in Alaska. Lake levels are dynamic, and frequently localized, because of subdued topography, varying lake ages and surficial geologic substrates, permafrost extent, and corresponding surface and groundwater flow paths. To better understand the relationships between climate and hydro-environmental change, we are sampling oxygen isotope ratios spatially and temporally. Here we present preliminary GIS-spatial analyses from 108 water bodies and a late Holocene sediment oxygen isotope record from Twelve Mile Lake. We find that the first-order wetland water chemistry relation is with geographic location and hydrologic linkages. A 1.45-m sediment core from 8.8-m water depth was retrieved from Twelve Mile Lake because lake-water ë18O values indicate that evaporation dominates the lake's hydrologic balance and because it is sufficiently alkaline to generate bioinduced endogenic carbonate sedimentation. The sediment ë18O trends during the last millennia have decade-to-century scale temporal resolution and similarities with paleoclimatic trends documented by other lakes in interior regions of Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Results from these preliminary studies reinforce that 1) wetland and lake sensitivity to climate-induced changes in hydrology varies spatially in the Yukon Flats because of dynamic hydrogeographic factors, and 2) recent hydro-environmental changes are better evaluated within a long-term context of past natural variations provided by paleolimnology reconstruction techniques. Alaska area boreal change climate conference abstracts confluence continental environment evaporation flats flow groundwater habitat Holocene hydrology incidence isotope lake landscape mineral moisture mosaic natural variation permafrost reconstruction refuge resolution river sampling scale sediment sedimentation sensitivity summer technique temperature temporal topography trend variation water water bodies wetland wildfire wildlife winter Yukon territory exported from refbase (http://eros.usgs.gov/refbase/show.php?record=23332), last updated on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:59:54 -0500 text http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm10/waisfm10adv.html http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm10/waisfm10adv.html Anderson_etal2010 EROS @ cdeering @ 341 San Francisco, Calif. 2010 American Geophysical Union Washington, D.C. 13-17 December 2010 conference publication Fall Meeting Abstracts http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm10/waisfm10adv.html in editor