Abstract ATM-9423392 Brubaker,Linda B. University of Washington Title: Late Quaternary Climatic and Vegetation History of the Alaskan North Slope: Part II, Analysis of Paleo Records Beringia (far northwest Canada, Alaska, and northeast Siberia) is an important region of paleoclimate study for the NSF program Paleoclimate of Arctic Lakes and Estuaries (PALE) because it remained unglaciated during the late Quaternary and experienced extensive changes in paleogeography due to changing sea levels. This research is designed to describe the late Quaternary climate history of the North Slope (ca. 150,000 years BP to present) through the analysis of proxy climate indicators in a suite of lake sediment cores on the Alaskan North Slope. The research will: 1) describe temporal and spatial variations in the pollen, spores, plant macrofossils and selected geochemical properties, 2) interpret variations in paleoclimate from proxy indicators (using analytical approaches and large modern calibration data sets for the interpretation of pollen data), and 3) infer potential causes of paleoclimatic variations using a conceptual framework of large scale controls of eastern Beringian climate and climate model simulations as part of ongoing PALE paleoclimate projects. Results of the proposed research will contribute directly to PALE's goal of documenting circumarctic paleoclimate variability.
