Dramatic and ongoing changes pervading the Arctic and subarctic seas over
recent decades have motivated this effort to track and better understand hydrographic
variability using chemical tracers. Particular emphasis has been paid to differentiating
freshwater contributions to upper layers: namely Pacific water, meteoric water, and
sea-ice melt/formation.
Data collected in...
Two separate research projects are described here. One involves
development of a new analytical method for determination of Ba in seawater and
other natural waters. The other is a collaborative field study of the chemistry of
Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan.
The method project explored an ion chromatography-fluorescence detection
bench-top approach for...
Nares Strait is one of three main passages of the Canadian Archipelago that
channels freshwater from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic. There are very few
observations regarding the role of this region on the present day Arctic freshwater budget,
and even less regarding the changes in freshwater fluxes...
The Arctic Ocean is an important link in the global hydrological cycle, storing freshwater and releasing it to the North Atlantic Ocean in a variable fashion as pack ice and freshened seawater. An unknown fraction of this return flow passes through Nares Strait between northern Canada and Greenland. Surveys of...
The Western Lake Survey (WLS) of 1985 documented the status of lake water chemistry across the western US and inferred population representations of various subregions and geomorphic units via statistically analyses. Results from this 1985 study indicated that lakes of the Oregon Cascades had the second most pristine and dilute...
In 2002, oxygen isotope ratios of water (H2
18O/H2
16O), dissolved barium, and salinity were
measured in surface waters around northern North America to identify freshwater sources and to
provide a large-scale background for interpretation of regional inputs and processes. Oxygen isotope
ratios showed that precipitation, river runoff, and sea...
This thesis investigates lithogenic sediments on the Siberian Arctic shelf, their sources, modes of dispersal, transport pathways and post-depositional diagenetic alteration. Working with cores collected from the Chukchi, East Siberian and Laptev Seas, we characterize surface-sediment elemental chemistry and clay mineralogy. We identify five regions with endmember sedimentary compositions. Comparing...