Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:05:19.054Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleolimnology of Two Lakes in the Klutlan Glacier Region, Yukon Territory, Canada☆

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

J. Platt Bradbury  and
M. C. Whiteside
J. Platt Bradbury
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225 USA
M. C. Whiteside
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37916 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lakes developed on progressively younger end moraines of the Klutlan Glacier were initially assumed to have originated shortly after moraine emplacement and to have persisted to the present. Limnological differences between lakes on old vs young moraines were thought to result from limnological maturation within the lakes and ponds themselves and in response to the development of soils and vegetation on moraine surfaces. This study represents a paleolimnological test of this hypothesis. If true, the first-formed sediments of lakes on old moraines should be comparable to sediments presently forming in lakes on young moraines. Geochemical and paleontological studies of surface sediment to a series 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. Their sediment character more closely relates to the rapidity of basin formation due to melting of buried ice than to age of the lake itself or of the moraine on which it is situated. 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
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , July 1980 , pp. 149 - 168
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.)

Footnotes

☆

Contribution 206, Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. 55455.

References

Alhonen, P. Ristiluoma, S. On the occurrence of subfossil Pediastrum algae in a Flandrian core at Kirkkonummi, southern Finland. Geological Society of Finland, Bulletin 45 1 1973 73-77 Google Scholar
Birks, H.J.B. The present flora and vegetation of the moraines of the Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada: a study in plant succession. Quaternary Research 14 1980 60-86 Google Scholar
Birks, H.J.B. Modern pollen assemblages and vegetational history of the moraines of the Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Research 14 1980 101-129 Google Scholar
Cholnoky, B.J. Die Ökologie der Diatomeen in Binnengewassern 1968 J. Cramer Weinheim Google Scholar
Dean, W.E. Determination of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by loss on ignition: comparison with other methods. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 44 1974 242-248 Google Scholar
Driscoll, F.G. Jr. Formation of the Neoglacial surge moraines of the Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Research 14 1980 19-30 Google Scholar
Driscoll, F.G. Jr. Wastage of the Klutlan ice-cored moraines, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Research 14 1980 31-49 Google Scholar
Florin, M-B. Wright, H.E. Diatom evidence for persistence of stagnant glacial ice in Minnesota. Geological Society of America Bulletin 80 1969 695-704 Google Scholar
Foged, N. Diatoms from west Greenland. Meddelelser om Groenland 147 1953 1-86 Google Scholar
Foged, N. Diatoms from Perry Land, north Greenland. Meddelelser om Groenland 128 7 1955 Google Scholar
Foged, N. The diatoms in the basalt area and adjoining areas of Archean rock in West Greenland. Meddelelser om Groenland 156 4 1958 Google Scholar
Foged, N. Freshwater diatoms from Spitzbergen. Trømso Museums Skrifter 11 1964 Google Scholar
Hickman, M. Studies on the epipelic diatom flora of some lakes in the southern Yukon Territory, Canada. Archiv für Hydrobiologie 76 1975 420-448 Google Scholar
Hustedt, F. Systematische und ökologische Untersuchungen über die Diatomeen-Flora von Java, Bali und Sumatra. Sonderabdruck aus dem Archiv für Hydrobiologie Suppl. Band 15 1938 131-177 “Tropische Binnengewässer, Band VIII” Google Scholar
Hustedt, F. Die Kieselalgen Band. VII 1959 In “Dr. L. Rabenhorsts Kryptogamen-Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz,” Teil 2 Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G.E. A Treatise on Limnology Vol. 2 1967 Wiley New York Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G.E. A Treatise on Limnology Vol. 3 1975 Wiley New York Google Scholar
Jacobson, G.L. Jr. Birks, H.J.B. Soil development on recent end moraines of the Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Research 14 1980 87-100 Google Scholar
Jorgensen, E.K. Diatom communities in Danish lakes and ponds. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Biologiske Skrifter 5 No. 2 1948 Google Scholar
Lowe, R.L. Environmental requirements and pollution tolerance of freshwater diatoms. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Monitoring Series 1974 No. EPA-670/4-74-005 Google Scholar
Rampton, V.N. Neoglacial fluctuations of the Natazhat and Klutlan glaciers, Yukon Territory, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 7 1970 1236-1263 Google Scholar
Rampton, V.N. Late Quaternary vegetational and climatic history of the Snag-Klutlan area, southwestern Yukon Territory, Canada. Geological Society of American Bulletin 82 1971 959-978 Google Scholar
Round, F.E. The late-glacial and post-glacial diatom succession in the Kentmere Valley deposit. The New Phytologist 56 1957 98-126 Google Scholar
Round, F.E. The epipsammon, a relatively unknown freshwater algal association. British Phycological Bulletin 2 1965 456-462 Google Scholar
Siever, R. Silica solubility, 0–200°C, and the diagenesis of siliceous sediments. Journal of Geology 70 1962 127-150 Google Scholar
Synerholm, C.C. The chydorid Cladocera from surface lake sediments in Minnesota and North Dakota. Archiv für Hydrobiologie 86 1979 137-151 Google Scholar
Tynni, R. Über Finnlands rezente und subfossile Diatomeen, VIII. Geological Society of Finland, Bulletin 274 1975 Google Scholar
Watson, R.A. Landform development on moraines of the Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Research 14 1980 50-59 Google Scholar
Whiteside, M.C. Danish chydorid Cladocera: modern ecology and core studies. Ecological Monographs 40 1970 79-118 Google Scholar
Whiteside, M.C. Bradbury, J.P. Tarapchak, S.J. Limnology of the Klutlan moraines, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Research 14 1980 130-148 Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Cushing, E.J. Livingstone, D.I. Coring devices for lake sediments Kummel, B. Raup, H.M. Handbook of Paleontological Techniques 1965 Freeman San Francisco 494-520 Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. A square-rod piston sampler for lake sediments. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 37 1967 975-976 Google Scholar