T73 A Celebration of Lakes-Past and Present (Posters): In Honor of Dan Livingstone

Sunday, 25 September 2016
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Exhibit Hall E/F

A SHORT-TERM DIATOM-INFERRED HISTORY OF BEARTOOTH LAKE, WYOMING

Paper number: T73-15
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

Beartooth Lake, an alpine lake of glacial origin, is located in the Beartooth Mountains to the East of Yellowstone National Park at an elevation of 2,720 m. Beartooth Lake has a maximum water depth of 28 m. Like many alpine lakes in the Rocky Mountain region, Beartooth Lake has high clarity with a deep chlorophyll maximum. In this study, we explore preliminary fossil diatom assemblage data from a short surface sediment core collected in August of 2015 and measuring 34 cm. Because of the high transparency, the system is primarily dominated by benthic diatom species, despite the collection of the core from fairly deep water. The lake is a popular location for recreation and a campground is located along the southern shore. We targeted this site to determine whether anthropogenic activity has any influence on the recent part of the record. Potential impacts include the establishment of the area for recreational use, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, as well as climatological changes in recent centuries.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-285805

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.