29-39 Refining the Holocene climate record at Gull Lake (CA): securing freshwater resources in the Eastern Sierras

Session: Undergraduate Research, Part II (Posters)

Poster Booth No.: 90

Presenting Author:

Jema Caumanday

Authors:

Caumanday, Jema A.¹, Lo, Edward L.², Lyon, Eva M.³, McGlue, Michael M.⁴, Erhardt, Andrea M.⁵, Yeager, Kevin M.⁶, Stone, Jeffery R.⁷, Lopera Congote, Laura⁸

(1) School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, (2) School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA; Institute for Water and Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, (3) Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Department of Earth Sciences, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, USA, (4) Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA, (5) Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA, (6) Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA, (7) Department of Earth and Environmental Systems, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana, USA, (8) Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA,

Abstract:

The western United States has been and continues to face increasingly severe drought conditions, as much of the southwestern region moves toward drier climates. In the Sierra Nevada, snowpack levels are projected to decrease significantly by the end of the century. This poses a major challenge for glacial lakes, which are important sources of freshwater in the Great Basin of California. While previous studies have reconstructed the climate and environmental history of glacial lakes in the Sierra Nevada, variabilities discovered between study sites highlight the importance of creating more localized records. The purpose of this study is to create a high-resolution environmental record of Gull Lake throughout the Holocene by analyzing lake surface samples, as well as sediment cores (GLCA-3A, GLCA-4B). Carbon and Nitrogen ratios, combined with total carbon contents, grain size distributions, and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) geochemistry, are utilized to interpret past climate, depositional changes, and organic productivity at Gull Lake, California. Preliminary results indicate variability in lake productivity and depositional conditions, and provide more insight into Gull Lake’s Holocene paleoenvironmental records that align with previous regional studies.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 1, 2026

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