Decadal to Centennial History of Lena River Discharge to the Arctic Ocean

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

This research will examine the effects of anthropogenic activity and global warming on freshwater and organic carbon input to the Arctic Ocean from the Lena River for the last 50-150 years. Additionally, it will reconstruct the late Holocene freshwater and organic carbon discharges for the past 2,000 years. The overarching goal will be to assess impacts of late Holocene climate change on watershed-river-upper ocean linkages. The research will obtain a broad suite of observations, including bottom sediment and water column properties, from the Lena River delta and will use these to parameterize the historical data. Age dating will be done using radioactive decay methods to produce a reliable annual to decadal age model, microfossils from sediment cores will be analyzed to reconstruct the Lena River's fluvial dynamics, and palynological studies will recover information about past environmental change in the Lena watershed. Results will be correlated with tree-ring records to generate information on arctic/subarctic humidity and precipitation. Globally, the results will contribute to understanding contributions of the Russian arctic rivers to global hydrologic and carbon cycles.