Lesleigh Anderson
I study past climates and environments using sediments from lakes, wetlands, and permafrost with an emphasis on water isotope tracers. The continuous records that I develop extend from the present through past decades, centuries, millennia, and previous glaciations and reflect hydroclimatic processes on global, regional, and local scales.
My main study areas are the North America cordilleran west, from Alaska to the southern Rockies. My main interests are to discover water isotope data which documents how and why changes in climate have affected alpine and arctic landscapes across space and through time. In addition to paleoclimatology and geochronological methods, my research also includes multiple perspectives from aspects of paleolimnology (lake sedimentology, geochemistry, hydrology), geomorphology, and the modern climatology of North Pacific ocean-atmosphere interactions.
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 (2005)
M.Sc., Geology, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2000)
B.Sc., Chemistry, University of Utah (1985)
Science and Products
Water isotope systematics: Improving our palaeoclimate interpretations
Isotopes in North American Rocky Mountain snowpack 1993–2014
A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A
Ocean-atmosphere forcing of centennial hydroclimatic variability in the Pacific Northwest
Controls on recent Alaskan lake changes identified from water isotopes and remote sensing
Rocky Mountain hydroclimate: Holocene variability and the role of insolation, ENSO, and the North American Monsoon
Enhanced Late Holocene ENSO/PDO expression along the margins of the eastern North Pacific
Lake carbonate-δ18 records from the Yukon Territory, Canada: Little Ice Age moisture variability and patterns
Holocene record of precipitation seasonality from lake calcite δ18O in the central Rocky Mountains, United States
Temperature and precipitation history of the Arctic
Non-USGS Publications**
**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
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Filter Total Items: 22
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 time seriesAuthorsM. D. Jones, S. Dee, L. Anderson, A. Baker, G. Bowen, D. NooneIsotopes 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 unprecedented spatAuthorsLesleigh Anderson, Max Berkelhammer, Alisa MastA 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 longer timeAuthorsLesleigh Anderson, Andrea Brunelle, Robert S. ThompsonOcean-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 the MedievaAuthorsByron 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. BirdControls 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 hydroclimatic parameteAuthorsLesleigh Anderson, Jean Birks, Jennifer R. Rover, Nikki GuldagerRocky 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-arid regionAuthorsLesleigh AndersonEnhanced 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 or more negAuthorsJohn A. Barron, Lesleigh AndersonLake carbonate-δ18 records from the Yukon Territory, Canada: Little Ice Age moisture variability and patterns
A 1000-yr history of climate change in the central Yukon Territory, Canada, is inferred from sediment composition and isotope geochemistry from small, groundwater fed, Seven Mile Lake. Recent observations of lake-water δ18O, lake level, river discharge, and climate variations, suggest that changes in regional effective moisture (precipitation minus evaporation) are reflected by the lake’s hydrologAuthorsLesleigh Anderson, Bruce P. Finney, Mark D. ShapleyHolocene record of precipitation seasonality from lake calcite δ18O in the central Rocky Mountains, United States
A context for recent hydroclimatic extremes and variability is provided by a ∼10 k.y. sediment carbonate oxygen isotope (δ18O) record at 5–100 yr resolution from Bison Lake, 3255 m above sea level, in northwestern Colorado (United States). Winter precipitation is the primary water source for the alpine headwater lake in the Upper Colorado River Basin and lake water δ18O measurements reflect seasonAuthorsLesleigh AndersonTemperature and precipitation history of the Arctic
As the planet cooled from peak warmth in the early Cenozoic, extensive Northern Hemisphere ice sheets developed by 2.6 Ma ago, leading to changes in the circulation of both the atmosphere and oceans. From ∼2.6 to ∼1.0 Ma ago, ice sheets came and went about every 41 ka, in pace with cycles in the tilt of Earth’s axis, but for the past 700 ka, glacial cycles have been longer, lasting ∼100 ka, separaAuthorsG. H. Miller, J. Brigham-Grete, R. B. Alley, Lesleigh Anderson, H.A. Bauch, M. S. V. Douglas, M. E. Edwards, S. A. Elias, B. P. Finney, Joan J. Fitzpatrick, S. V. Funder, T. D. Herbert, L. D. Hinzman, D. S. Kaufman, G. M. MacDonald, L. Polyak, A. Robock, M. C. Serreze, J. P. Smol, J. W. C. White, A. P. Wolfe, E. W. WolffNon-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.
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