Dune Lake, Alaska 12,000 Year Multiproxy Sediment Data

This dataset contains opal, organic carbon and nitrogen contents, and organic δ13C (carbon-13) and δN15 (nitrogen-15) stable isotopes that were analyzed on a sedimentary sequence spanning the past ~12,000 years from Dune Lake, a shallow groundwater-fed lake in the boreal forest region of central interior Alaska. The unusual hydrology of this system relative to most other lakes studied for paleoclimate in this region provides a novel insight into different seasonal aspects of Alaskan paleoclimatology. The record is consistent with a general long-term decrease in wintertime precipitation, possibly accompanied by an increase in permafrost extent, over the Holocene.