Pollen and spore counts, Lake Villaluenga, Alaska, 2016

The eastern coastline of the Gulf of Alaska may have been part of the Northwest Coast Route for human dispersal into lower latitude North America at the end of the last ice age. As part of a study aimed at describing the paleoenvironments of the Northwest Coast Route, we retrieved several sediment cores from a small lake near Cape Spencer that we informally call Laguna Villaluenga. The lake lies 3-4 m above present high tide line and is dammed behind a bedrock, glacially-scoured threshold. The remains of marine shells in the lower parts of the core indicate that marine waters filled the basin until ca. 14 cal ka BP (14,000 calendar years before AD 1950). Rapid accumulation of glaciogenic sediment ceased after the basin became isolated from the sea. The pollen data included here spans the period between ca. 14 cal ka BP and 6 cal ka BP.