Summary: Lake-level history for Birch Lake, Alaska, was reconstructed using seismic profiles and multiproxy sedimentary analyses including
sedimentology, geochemistry, magnetic susceptibility, and palynology. Twenty-two seismic profiles (18 km total) and eight
sediment cores taken from the lake margin to its depocenter at 13.5 m provide evidence for low lake stands during the late
Pleistocene and Holocene. Thirty-one AMS radiocarbon dates of macrofossils and pollen provide a century-scale chronology.
Prior to 12,700 14C yr B.P., the lake, which now overflows, was either seasonally dry or desiccated for prolonged periods,
indicating a severe period of aridity. Lake level rose more than 18 m between 12,700 and 12,200 14C yr B.P. before falling
to 17 m below the level of overflow. Between 11,600 and 10,600 14C yr B.P. the water remained between 14 and 17 m below the
overflow level. Onlap sedimentary sequences were formed during a transgression phase between 10,600 and 10,000 14C yr B.P.
Between 10,000 and about 8800 14C yr B.P. the lake was between 6 and 9 m below the overflow level. Lake level again rose,
approaching the overflow level, between 8800 and 8000 14C yr B.P. Seismic and core evidence of minor erosional events suggest
lowstands of 2-6 m until 4800 14C yr B.P. There have been no prolonged periods of lake-level depression since that time. The
major restructuring of the climate system during deglaciation evidently generated a complex set of fluctuations in effective
moisture in interior Alaska, which likely affected eolian processes and vegetation development, as well as lake levels.
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