Physical and chemical properties and proxies of high latitude lake sediments

Abstract

With increasing interest in the sensitivity and potential changes to high latitude environments, considerable attention has been focused on reconstructing past environmental conditions using lacustrine sediments from these regions. Although largely driven by concerns about amplified, human-induced high latitude climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2001), these records also provide important information to answer other environmental issues (e.g., ecosystem function, geomorphology, hydrology). Collectively, this research has provided the first indications of how the polar terrestrial environmental systems respond to climatic and other sources of variability. Much of this paleoenvironmental information has been summarized in several regional and circumpolar composite records (e.g., Bradley 1990; Overpeck et al. 1997) and demonstrates the valuable prospective that lacustrine sedimentary records can provide.