Paleolimnology of two lakes in the Klutlan Glacier region, Yukon Territory, Canada

Auteurs :
BRADBURY, J. P.
WHITESIDE, M. C.

Description :
Geochemical and paleontological studies of surface sediment to a serie of lakes on progressively older moraines provide baseline information for comparing successive levels of lake sediment cores from older moraines. Results indicate that the time of lake initiation seldom reflects moraine age. Even on the oldest moraine (Harris Creek), lake basins are presently forming. Vegetation and soil development play an important but secondary role in determining the character of lake sediments| rapid subsidence can convert humic-water lakes surrounded by second-generation spruce forests into turbid-water lakes with unstable, slumping margins. A detailed paleolimnological study of two lakes, one on the unglaciated upland and another in an outwash channel penetrating the oldest moraine, revealed progressive limnologic changes through time, suggesting that their basins were stable for 1200 and 400 yr, respectively. The changes in diatom stratigraphy of these lakes appear to relate to natural limnological changes associated with lake maturation and accumulation of nutrients as well as to changes in the surrounding vegetation and soils.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Quaternary research New York, 1980, vol. 14, n°. 1, p. 149-168, Références bibliographiques : 32réf.

Date :
1980