14C (Carbon-14) ages of Holocene lake drainage events on the North Slope of Alaska, 2019-2020

Lakes are abundant features on coastal plains of the Arctic, providing important fish and wildlife habitat and water supply for villages and industry, but also interact with frozen ground (permafrost) and the carbon it stores. Most of these lakes are termed "thermokarst" because they form in ice-rich permafrost and gradually expand over time. The dynamic nature of thermokarst lakes also makes them prone to catastrophic drainage and abrupt conversion to wetlands, called drained thermokarst lake basins (DTLBs). Together, thermokarst lakes and DTLBs cover up to 80% of arctic lowland regions, making understanding their response to ongoing climate change essential for coastal plain environmental assessment. Dating the timing of lake drainage can improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of DTLB formation. This suite of 14C (Carbon-14) ages provides insight into the timing of lake drainage on the North Slope of Alaska across a range of ecosystems and surficial geology types.

北极沿海平原分布着大量湖泊，它们不仅为当地村落与工业提供了重要的鱼类及野生生物栖息地与水源，同时也与冻土（永久冻土，permafrost）及其储存的碳发生相互作用。其中多数湖泊被称为“热喀斯特湖（thermokarst lakes）”，因它们形成于富冰永久冻土中并随时间逐步扩张。热喀斯特湖的动态特性使其极易发生灾难性排水，并快速转变为湿地，这类湿地被称为疏干热喀斯特湖盆（drained thermokarst lake basins，DTLBs）。热喀斯特湖与疏干热喀斯特湖盆合计可覆盖北极低地区域的80%，因此厘清它们对当前气候变化的响应，对于沿海平原的环境评估至关重要。确定湖泊疏干的时间节点，有助于深化我们对疏干热喀斯特湖盆形成的成因与影响的认识。这套14C（Carbon-14）测年数据，可帮助我们探究阿拉斯加北坡不同生态系统与表层地质类型下的湖泊疏干时间。