Data for paleoclimatic analysis of Hg in lake sediments in Burial Lake, Alaska (1998-2025)

Substantial amounts of mercury (Hg) are projected to be released into Arctic watersheds as permafrost thaws amid warmer and wetter conditions. This may have far-reaching consequences because the highly toxic methylated form of Hg biomagnifies rapidly in ecosystems. However, understanding how climate change affects Hg dynamics in permafrost regions is limited due to the lack of long-term Arctic Hg records. Using a 27 thousand year (ka) Hg sediment record from Burial Lake, northwestern Alaska, we used the data in the attached .CSV files, to examine how well-characterized temperature, precipitation, and vegetation shifts affected Hg mobilization in a catchment underlain by permafrost, and the mechanisms by which Hg is transported. The tabular data (csv) in this data submission include the data used for the analysis presented in: Griffore, M., Abbott, M., Shelef, E., Finkenbinder, M., Stoner, J. and Edwards, M., 2025. Enhanced mercury deposition in Arctic Alaskan lake sediments coincides with the early Holocene hydroclimate shift. Science of the Total Environment, 962, p.178440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178440 Additional sedimentary proxies rely on prior work on these sediments: Abbott, M. B., Edwards, M. E., and Finney, B. P. (2010). A 40, 000-yr record of environmental change from Burial Lake in Northwest Alaska. Quaternary Research, 74(1), 156–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2010.03.007 Dorfman, J., Stoner, J., Finkenbinder, M., Abbott, M., Xuan, C., and St-Onge, G. (2015). A 37, 000-year environmental magnetic record of Aeolian dust deposition from Burial Lake, Arctic Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews, 128, 81–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.018 Finkenbinder, M. S., Abbott, M., Finney, B., Stoner, J., and Dorfman, J. (2015). A multi-proxy reconstruction of environmental change spanning the last 37, 000 years from Burial Lake, Arctic Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews, 126, 227–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.031 Finkenbinder, M. S., Abbott, M. B., Stoner, J. S., Ortiz, J. D., Finney, B. P., Dorfman, J. M., and Stansell, N. D. (2018). Millennial-scale variability in Holocene aquatic productivity from Burial Lake, Arctic Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews, 187, 220–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.03.019 King, A. L., Anderson, L., Abbott, M., Edwards, M., Finkenbinder, M. S., Finney, B., and Wooller, M. J. (2021). A stable isotope record of late Quaternary hydrologic change in the northwestern Brooks Range, Alaska (eastern Beringia). Journal of Quaternary Science. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3368 Kurek, J., Cwynar, L. C., Ager, T. A., Abbott, M. B., and Edwards, M. E. (2009). Late Quaternary paleoclimate of Western Alaska inferred from fossil Chironomids and its relation to vegetation histories. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28(9–10), 799–811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.12.001