Lesleigh Anderson
Dr. Lesleigh Anderson is a Research Geologist who uses sedimentology, geochemistry, and remote sensing tools in freshwater systems (e.g., lakes, wetlands, and permafrost) in support of water resource management, including salt lakes and natural hazards. Dr. Anderson manages the Quaternary Research Facility for sediment core processing and analyses.
Main study areas are in the North America cordilleran west, from Alaska to the southern Rockies. Research focuses on the development of water isotope tracers and sedimentary records to investigate hydrologic change across space and through time to better understand implications for local to regional water availability, ecosystem transformations, and geologic hazards.
Professional Experience
2005 – present, Research Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey Geoscience and Environmental Change Science Center
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst
M.Sc., Geology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
B.Sc., Chemistry, University of Utah
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 27
Lake levels in a discontinuous permafrost landscape: Late Holocene variations inferred from sediment oxygen isotopes, Yukon Flats, Alaska Lake levels in a discontinuous permafrost landscape: Late Holocene variations inferred from sediment oxygen isotopes, Yukon Flats, Alaska
During recent decades, lake levels in the Yukon Flats region of interior Alaska have fluctuated dramatically. However, prior to recorded observations, no data are available to indicate if similar or more extreme variations occurred during past centuries and millennia. This study explores the history of Yukon Flats lake origins and lake levels for the past approximately 5,500 years from...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Bruce P. Finney, Mark D. Shapley
A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era
This study presents a synthesis of century-scale hydroclimate variations in North America for the Common Era (last 2000 years) using new age models of previously published multiple proxy-based paleoclimate data. This North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) examines regional hydroclimate patterns and related environmental indicators, including vegetation, lake water elevation, stream...
Authors
Jessica R. Rodysill, Lesleigh Anderson, Thomas M. Cronin, Miriam C. Jones, Robert S. Thompson, David B. Wahl, Debra A. Willard, Jason A. Addison, Jay R. Alder, Katherine H. Anderson, Lysanna Anderson, John A. Barron, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Steven W. Hostetler, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Nicole Khan, Julie N. Richey, Scott W. Starratt, Laura E. Strickland, Michael Toomey, Claire C. Treat, G. Lynn Wingard
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Energy Resources Program, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
High sensitivity of gross primary production in the Rocky Mountains to summer rain High sensitivity of gross primary production in the Rocky Mountains to summer rain
In the catchments of the Rocky Mountains, peak snowpack is declining in response to warmer spring temperatures. To understand how this will influence terrestrial gross primary production (GPP), we compared precipitation data across the intermountain west with satellite retrievals of solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), a proxy for GPP. Annual precipitation patterns explained most of the...
Authors
M. Berkelhammer, I.C. Stefanescu, J. Joiner, Lesleigh Anderson
A synthesis of thermokarst lake water balance in high-latitude regions of North America from isotope tracers A synthesis of thermokarst lake water balance in high-latitude regions of North America from isotope tracers
Numerous studies utilizing remote sensing imagery and other methods have documented that thermokarst lakes are undergoing varied hydrological transitions in response to recent climate changes, from surface area expansion to drainage and evaporative desiccation. Here, we provide a synthesis of hydrological conditions for 376 lakes of mainly thermokarst origin across high-latitude North...
Authors
Lauren A. MacDonald, Brent B. Wolfe, Kevin W. Turner, Lesleigh Anderson, Christopher D. Arp, Jean Birks, Frederic Bouchard, Thomas W.D. Edwards, Nicole Farquharson, Roland I. Hall, Ian McDonald, Biljana Narancic, Chantal Ouimet, Reinhard Pienitz, Jana Tondu, Hilary White
Lake oxygen isotopes as recorders of North American Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene patterns and variability at multi-decadal to millennial time scales Lake oxygen isotopes as recorders of North American Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene patterns and variability at multi-decadal to millennial time scales
Lake sediment oxygen isotope records (calcium carbonate-δ18O) in the western North American Cordillera developed during the past decade provide substantial evidence of Pacific ocean–atmosphere forcing of hydroclimatic variability during the Holocene. Here we present an overview of 18 lake sediment δ18O records along with a new compilation of lake water δ18O and δ2H that are used to...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Max Berkelhammer, John A. Barron, Byron A. Steinman, Bruce P. Finney, Mark B. Abbott
Water isotope systematics: Improving our palaeoclimate interpretations Water isotope systematics: Improving our palaeoclimate interpretations
The stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen, measured in a variety of archives, are widely used proxies in Quaternary Science. Understanding the processes that control δ18O change have long been a focus of research (e.g. Shackleton and Opdyke, 1973; Talbot, 1990 ; Leng, 2006). Both the dynamics of water isotope cycling and the appropriate interpretation of geological water-isotope proxy...
Authors
M. D. Jones, S. Dee, L. Anderson, A. Baker, G. Bowen, D. Noone
Isotopes in North American Rocky Mountain snowpack 1993–2014 Isotopes in North American Rocky Mountain snowpack 1993–2014
We present ∼1300 new isotopic measurements (δ18O and δ2H) from a network of snowpack sites in the Rocky Mountains that have been sampled since 1993. The network includes 177 locations where depth-integrated snow samples are collected each spring near peak accumulation. At 57 of these locations snowpack samples were obtained for 10–21 years and their isotopic measurements provide...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Max Berkelhammer, M. Alisa Mast
A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A
Apparent changes in vegetation distribution, fire, and other disturbance regimes throughout western North America have prompted investigations of the relative importance of human activities and climate change as potential causal mechanisms. Assessing the effects of Euro-American settlement is difficult because climate changes occur on multi-decadal to centennial time scales and require...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Andrea Brunelle, Robert S. Thompson
Ocean-atmosphere forcing of centennial hydroclimatic variability in the Pacific Northwest Ocean-atmosphere forcing of centennial hydroclimatic variability in the Pacific Northwest
Reconstructing centennial timescale hydroclimate variability during the late Holocene is critically important for understanding large-scale patterns of drought and their relationship with climate dynamics. We present sediment oxygen isotope records spanning the last two millennia from 10 lakes, as well as climate model simulations, indicating that the Little Ice Age was dry relative to...
Authors
Byron A. Steinman, Mark B. Abbott, Michael E. Mann, Joseph D. Ortiz, Song Feng, David P. Pompeani, Nathan D. Stansell, Lesleigh Anderson, Bruce P. Finney, Broxton W. Bird
Controls on recent Alaskan lake changes identified from water isotopes and remote sensing Controls on recent Alaskan lake changes identified from water isotopes and remote sensing
High-latitude lakes are important for terrestrial carbon dynamics and waterfowl habitat driving a need to better understand controls on lake area changes. To identify the existence and cause of recent lake area changes in the Yukon Flats, a region of discontinuous permafrost in north central Alaska, we evaluate remotely sensed imagery with lake water isotope compositions and...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Jean Birks, Jennifer R. Rover, Nikki Guldager
Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene variability and the role of insolation, ENSO, and the North American Monsoon Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene variability and the role of insolation, ENSO, and the North American Monsoon
Over the period of instrumental records, precipitation maximum in the headwaters of the Colorado Rocky Mountains has been dominated by winter snow, with a substantial degree of interannual variability linked to Pacific ocean–atmosphere dynamics. High-elevation snowpack is an important water storage that is carefully observed in order to meet increasing water demands in the greater semi...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson
Enhanced Late Holocene ENSO/PDO expression along the margins of the eastern North Pacific Enhanced Late Holocene ENSO/PDO expression along the margins of the eastern North Pacific
Pacific climate is known to have varied during the Holocene, but spatial patterns remain poorly defined. This paper compiles terrestrial and marine proxy data from sites along the northeastern Pacific margins and proposes that they indicate 1) suppressed ENSO conditions during the middle Holocene between ∼8000 and 4000 cal BP with a North Pacific that generally resembled a La Niña-like...
Authors
John A. Barron, Lesleigh Anderson
Non-USGS Publications**
Abbott M.B., Anderson, L., 2009, Lake-Level Fluctuations, in, Gornitz, V., ed., Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments: Springer-Verlag.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P. and Burns, S.J., 2007, Late Holocene moisture balance variability in the southwest Yukon Territory, Canada: Quaternary Science Reviews, 26: 130-141.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P. and Burns, S.J., 2005, Regional atmospheric circulation change in the North Pacific during the Holocene inferred from lacustrine carbonate oxygen isotopes, Yukon Territory, Canada: Quaternary Research 64: 21-35. Erratum 65: 350-351.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P. and Edwards, M.E., 2005, Paleohydrology of the southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, based on multi-proxy lake sediment core analyses from a depth transect: The Holocene 15(8): 1172-1183.
Pilcher, J., Bradley, R.S. Francus, P. and Anderson, L., 2005, A Holocene tephra record from the Lofoten Islands, Arctic Norway: Boreas 34: 136-156.
Fisher, D.A., Wake, C., Kreutz, K., Yalcin, K., Steig, E., Mayewski, P., Anderson, L., Zheng, J., Rupper, S., Zdanowicz, C., Demuth, M., Waskiewicz, M., Dahl-Jensen, D., Goto-Azuma, K., Bourgeois, J.B., Koerner, R.M., Sekerka, J., Osterberg, E., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P., Burns, S.J., 2004, Stable Isotope records from Mount Logan, Eclipse ice cores and nearby Jellybean Lake. Water cycle of the North Pacific over 2000 years and over five vertical kilometers: sudden shifts and tropical connections: Géographie physique et Quaternaire 58: 337-352.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., and Finney, B.P., 2001, Holocene Climate from Oxygen Isotope Ratios in Lake Sediments, Central Brooks Range, Alaska: Quaternary Research 55: 313-321.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 27
Lake levels in a discontinuous permafrost landscape: Late Holocene variations inferred from sediment oxygen isotopes, Yukon Flats, Alaska Lake levels in a discontinuous permafrost landscape: Late Holocene variations inferred from sediment oxygen isotopes, Yukon Flats, Alaska
During recent decades, lake levels in the Yukon Flats region of interior Alaska have fluctuated dramatically. However, prior to recorded observations, no data are available to indicate if similar or more extreme variations occurred during past centuries and millennia. This study explores the history of Yukon Flats lake origins and lake levels for the past approximately 5,500 years from...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Bruce P. Finney, Mark D. Shapley
A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era
This study presents a synthesis of century-scale hydroclimate variations in North America for the Common Era (last 2000 years) using new age models of previously published multiple proxy-based paleoclimate data. This North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) examines regional hydroclimate patterns and related environmental indicators, including vegetation, lake water elevation, stream...
Authors
Jessica R. Rodysill, Lesleigh Anderson, Thomas M. Cronin, Miriam C. Jones, Robert S. Thompson, David B. Wahl, Debra A. Willard, Jason A. Addison, Jay R. Alder, Katherine H. Anderson, Lysanna Anderson, John A. Barron, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Steven W. Hostetler, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Nicole Khan, Julie N. Richey, Scott W. Starratt, Laura E. Strickland, Michael Toomey, Claire C. Treat, G. Lynn Wingard
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Energy Resources Program, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
High sensitivity of gross primary production in the Rocky Mountains to summer rain High sensitivity of gross primary production in the Rocky Mountains to summer rain
In the catchments of the Rocky Mountains, peak snowpack is declining in response to warmer spring temperatures. To understand how this will influence terrestrial gross primary production (GPP), we compared precipitation data across the intermountain west with satellite retrievals of solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), a proxy for GPP. Annual precipitation patterns explained most of the...
Authors
M. Berkelhammer, I.C. Stefanescu, J. Joiner, Lesleigh Anderson
A synthesis of thermokarst lake water balance in high-latitude regions of North America from isotope tracers A synthesis of thermokarst lake water balance in high-latitude regions of North America from isotope tracers
Numerous studies utilizing remote sensing imagery and other methods have documented that thermokarst lakes are undergoing varied hydrological transitions in response to recent climate changes, from surface area expansion to drainage and evaporative desiccation. Here, we provide a synthesis of hydrological conditions for 376 lakes of mainly thermokarst origin across high-latitude North...
Authors
Lauren A. MacDonald, Brent B. Wolfe, Kevin W. Turner, Lesleigh Anderson, Christopher D. Arp, Jean Birks, Frederic Bouchard, Thomas W.D. Edwards, Nicole Farquharson, Roland I. Hall, Ian McDonald, Biljana Narancic, Chantal Ouimet, Reinhard Pienitz, Jana Tondu, Hilary White
Lake oxygen isotopes as recorders of North American Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene patterns and variability at multi-decadal to millennial time scales Lake oxygen isotopes as recorders of North American Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene patterns and variability at multi-decadal to millennial time scales
Lake sediment oxygen isotope records (calcium carbonate-δ18O) in the western North American Cordillera developed during the past decade provide substantial evidence of Pacific ocean–atmosphere forcing of hydroclimatic variability during the Holocene. Here we present an overview of 18 lake sediment δ18O records along with a new compilation of lake water δ18O and δ2H that are used to...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Max Berkelhammer, John A. Barron, Byron A. Steinman, Bruce P. Finney, Mark B. Abbott
Water isotope systematics: Improving our palaeoclimate interpretations Water isotope systematics: Improving our palaeoclimate interpretations
The stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen, measured in a variety of archives, are widely used proxies in Quaternary Science. Understanding the processes that control δ18O change have long been a focus of research (e.g. Shackleton and Opdyke, 1973; Talbot, 1990 ; Leng, 2006). Both the dynamics of water isotope cycling and the appropriate interpretation of geological water-isotope proxy...
Authors
M. D. Jones, S. Dee, L. Anderson, A. Baker, G. Bowen, D. Noone
Isotopes in North American Rocky Mountain snowpack 1993–2014 Isotopes in North American Rocky Mountain snowpack 1993–2014
We present ∼1300 new isotopic measurements (δ18O and δ2H) from a network of snowpack sites in the Rocky Mountains that have been sampled since 1993. The network includes 177 locations where depth-integrated snow samples are collected each spring near peak accumulation. At 57 of these locations snowpack samples were obtained for 10–21 years and their isotopic measurements provide...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Max Berkelhammer, M. Alisa Mast
A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A
Apparent changes in vegetation distribution, fire, and other disturbance regimes throughout western North America have prompted investigations of the relative importance of human activities and climate change as potential causal mechanisms. Assessing the effects of Euro-American settlement is difficult because climate changes occur on multi-decadal to centennial time scales and require...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Andrea Brunelle, Robert S. Thompson
Ocean-atmosphere forcing of centennial hydroclimatic variability in the Pacific Northwest Ocean-atmosphere forcing of centennial hydroclimatic variability in the Pacific Northwest
Reconstructing centennial timescale hydroclimate variability during the late Holocene is critically important for understanding large-scale patterns of drought and their relationship with climate dynamics. We present sediment oxygen isotope records spanning the last two millennia from 10 lakes, as well as climate model simulations, indicating that the Little Ice Age was dry relative to...
Authors
Byron A. Steinman, Mark B. Abbott, Michael E. Mann, Joseph D. Ortiz, Song Feng, David P. Pompeani, Nathan D. Stansell, Lesleigh Anderson, Bruce P. Finney, Broxton W. Bird
Controls on recent Alaskan lake changes identified from water isotopes and remote sensing Controls on recent Alaskan lake changes identified from water isotopes and remote sensing
High-latitude lakes are important for terrestrial carbon dynamics and waterfowl habitat driving a need to better understand controls on lake area changes. To identify the existence and cause of recent lake area changes in the Yukon Flats, a region of discontinuous permafrost in north central Alaska, we evaluate remotely sensed imagery with lake water isotope compositions and...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Jean Birks, Jennifer R. Rover, Nikki Guldager
Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene variability and the role of insolation, ENSO, and the North American Monsoon Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene variability and the role of insolation, ENSO, and the North American Monsoon
Over the period of instrumental records, precipitation maximum in the headwaters of the Colorado Rocky Mountains has been dominated by winter snow, with a substantial degree of interannual variability linked to Pacific ocean–atmosphere dynamics. High-elevation snowpack is an important water storage that is carefully observed in order to meet increasing water demands in the greater semi...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson
Enhanced Late Holocene ENSO/PDO expression along the margins of the eastern North Pacific Enhanced Late Holocene ENSO/PDO expression along the margins of the eastern North Pacific
Pacific climate is known to have varied during the Holocene, but spatial patterns remain poorly defined. This paper compiles terrestrial and marine proxy data from sites along the northeastern Pacific margins and proposes that they indicate 1) suppressed ENSO conditions during the middle Holocene between ∼8000 and 4000 cal BP with a North Pacific that generally resembled a La Niña-like...
Authors
John A. Barron, Lesleigh Anderson
Non-USGS Publications**
Abbott M.B., Anderson, L., 2009, Lake-Level Fluctuations, in, Gornitz, V., ed., Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments: Springer-Verlag.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P. and Burns, S.J., 2007, Late Holocene moisture balance variability in the southwest Yukon Territory, Canada: Quaternary Science Reviews, 26: 130-141.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P. and Burns, S.J., 2005, Regional atmospheric circulation change in the North Pacific during the Holocene inferred from lacustrine carbonate oxygen isotopes, Yukon Territory, Canada: Quaternary Research 64: 21-35. Erratum 65: 350-351.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P. and Edwards, M.E., 2005, Paleohydrology of the southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, based on multi-proxy lake sediment core analyses from a depth transect: The Holocene 15(8): 1172-1183.
Pilcher, J., Bradley, R.S. Francus, P. and Anderson, L., 2005, A Holocene tephra record from the Lofoten Islands, Arctic Norway: Boreas 34: 136-156.
Fisher, D.A., Wake, C., Kreutz, K., Yalcin, K., Steig, E., Mayewski, P., Anderson, L., Zheng, J., Rupper, S., Zdanowicz, C., Demuth, M., Waskiewicz, M., Dahl-Jensen, D., Goto-Azuma, K., Bourgeois, J.B., Koerner, R.M., Sekerka, J., Osterberg, E., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P., Burns, S.J., 2004, Stable Isotope records from Mount Logan, Eclipse ice cores and nearby Jellybean Lake. Water cycle of the North Pacific over 2000 years and over five vertical kilometers: sudden shifts and tropical connections: Géographie physique et Quaternaire 58: 337-352.
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., and Finney, B.P., 2001, Holocene Climate from Oxygen Isotope Ratios in Lake Sediments, Central Brooks Range, Alaska: Quaternary Research 55: 313-321.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.