Lesleigh Anderson
Biography
Lesleigh Anderson conducts research that investigates the paleoclimate of western North America using geochemical and sedimentary proxies in lake sediments, fossil wood and peatlands. Her current focus is on documenting past patterns and variability to better evaluate ongoing and potential changes in regional water availability.
Education
- B.Sc., Chemistry, University of Utah (1985)
- M.Sc., Geology, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2000)
- Ph.D., Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2005)
Science and Products
Past Perspectives of Water in the West
In the intermountain west, seasonal precipitation extremes, combined with population growth, are creating new challenges for the management of water resources, ecosystems, and geologic hazards. This research contributes a comprehensive long-term context for a deeper understanding of past hydrologic variability, including the magnitude and frequency of drought and flood extremes and ecosystem...
Holocene Hydroclimate of Western North America
The objectives of this project are to reconstruct detailed histories of Holocene hydroclimate and corresponding environmental change from geological archives such as lake sediment, peat, and wood to more fully understand past, ongoing, and future change and its impacts.
USGS permafrost research determines the risks of permafrost thaw to biologic and hydrologic resources
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with university, Federal, Tribal, and independent partners, conducts fundamental research on the distribution, vulnerability, and importance of permafrost in arctic and boreal ecosystems. Scientists, land managers, and policy makers use USGS data to help make decisions for development, wildlife...
Waldrop, Mark P.; Anderson, Lesleigh; Dornblaser, Mark; Erikson, Li H.; Gibbs, Ann E.; Herman-Mercer, Nicole M.; James, Stephanie R.; Jones, Miriam C.; Koch, Joshua C.; Leewis, Mary-Cathrine; Manies, Kristen L.; Minsley, Burke J.; Pastick, Neal J.; Patil, Vijay; Urban, Frank; Walvoord, Michelle A.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Zimmerman, ChristianPersistence and plasticity in conifer water-use strategies
The selective use of seasonal precipitation by vegetation is critical to understanding the residence time and flow path of water in watersheds, yet there are limited datasets to test how climate alters these dynamics. Here, we use measurements of the seasonal cycle of tree ring 18O for two widespread conifer species in the Rocky Mountains of North...
Berkelhammer, Max ; Still, Chris ; Ritter, Francois ; Winnik, Matthew ; Anderson, Lesleigh; Carroll, Rosemary ; Carbone, Mariah ; Williams, KennethAn assessment of plant species differences on cellulose oxygen isotopes from two Kenai Peninsula, Alaska peatlands: Implications for hydroclimatic reconstructions
Peat cores are valuable archives of past environmental change because they accumulate plant organic matter over millennia. While studies have primarily focused on physical, ecological, and some biogeochemical proxies, cores from peatlands have increasingly been used to interpret hydroclimatic change using stable isotope analyses of cellulose...
Jones, Miriam; Anderson, Lesleigh; Keller, Katherine; Nash, Bailey; Littell, Virginia; Wooller, Matthew J.; Jolley, ChelseaFish Lake limnology and watershed aqueous geochemistry, Fish Lake Plateau, Utah
Fish Lake is located at 2696 m elevation on the Fish Lake Plateau with a bedrock geology of Oligocene to Pliocene age volcanics and Cretaceous to Eocene age sedimentary rocks. Lake bathymetry indicates a maximum depth of ~27 m and volume of 2.31 x 108 m3. The lake is dimictic with summer water column temperature declines of 13˚C between 7 to 15 m...
David Marchetti; Anderson, Lesleigh; Joseph J. Donovan; M. Scott Harris; Tyler HuthLake 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...
Anderson, Lesleigh; Finney, Bruce P.; Shapley, Mark D.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,...
Rodysill, Jessica R. ; Anderson, Lesleigh; Cronin, Thomas M.; Jones, Miriam C.; Thompson, Robert S.; Wahl, David B.; Willard, Debra A.; Addison, Jason A.; Alder, Jay R.; Anderson, Katherine H.; Anderson, Lysanna; Barron, John A.; Bernhardt, Christopher E.; Hostetler, Steven W.; Kehrwald, Natalie M.; Khan, Nicole; Richey, Julie N.; Starratt, Scott W.; Strickland, Laura E.; Toomey, Michael; Treat, Claire C.; Wingard, G. LynnHigh 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...
Berkelhammer, M.; Stefanescu, I.C.; Joiner, J.; Anderson, LesleighA 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...
MacDonald, Lauren A.; Wolfe, Brent B.; Turner, Kevin W.; Anderson, Lesleigh; Arp, Christopher D.; Birks, Jean; Bouchard, Frédéric; Edwards, Thomas W.D.; Farquharson, Nicole; Hall, Roland I.; McDonald, Ian; Narancic, Biljana; Ouimet, Chantal; Pienitz, Reinhard; Tondu, Jana; White, HilaryWater 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...
Jones, M. D.; Dee, S.; Anderson, L.; Baker, A.; Bowen, G.; Noone, D.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...
Anderson, Lesleigh; Berkelhammer, Max ; Barron, John A.; Steinman, Byron A.; Finney, Bruce P.; Abbott, Mark B.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...
Anderson, Lesleigh; Berkelhammer, Max ; Mast, AlisaA 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-...
Anderson, Lesleigh; Brunelle, Andrea; Thompson, Robert S.Pre-USGS Publications
Tracking long term changes in lake levels within permafrost regions of Alaska
This article is part of the Spring 2019 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.
Tracking long-term changes in Rocky Mountain snowpack
This article is part of the Fall 2016 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.
Tracing long-term changes in Rocky Mountain climate, water, and ecosystems
This article is part of the Fall 2015 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.