ARCSS089: Preliminary Investigation of Paleoenvironment, Processes, and Carbon Stocks of Drained Thaw-Lake Basins, Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska Grant Number: NSF-OPP/ARCSS-9911122 P.I. Contact: Dr. Wendy R. Eisner Department of Geography University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH 45221 phone: (513)556-3926 email: wendy.eisner@uc.edu Data Information: 1. Collection dates: August 2000, April 2001, August 2001, July-December 2001 2. Data collection methods: We conducted a program of basin age verification, soil sampling, and vegetation description of drained thaw-lake basins between Barrow and Atqasuk. The basins were selected based on their relative age, which was determined using Landsat 7+ imagery and the degree of basin polygonization. The classification scheme includes young (3 lakes sampled), medium (3), old (4) and ancient (2) basins. In the April season, the sites were accessed by snow machines, which were used to transport a Big Beaver drill mounted on a snow machine sled. We collected a total of 37 cores, which were transported to laboratory facilities at BASC/NARL where we described, photographed, and subsampled for pollen and radiocarbon. We then sectioned the cores into 10-cm segments, weighed them, and then oven-dried the samples for transport to the home institutes (University of Wisconsin and University of Cincinnati) where they are being analyzed for organic C and other key morphological and chemical properties. During the two summer seasons, basins were accessed by land vehicles and helicopter, re-classifying them on the ground based on vegetation composition and the degree of basin polygonization. 3. Data format: ASCII, Excel 4. Collection site descriptions and conditions: Thus far, we have a sample size of 78 basins selected from the portion of the Arctic Coastal Plain within a 50-km radius of Barrow, Alaska. Locations are noted in the file: Thawclass. Our temporal scale is approximately 5500 years: the oldest date we have thus far indicating the timing of basin drainage. This is part of our effort to determine the amount of carbon sequestered in drained basins, changes in carbon accumulation rates overtime, and to understand the influence of climate on the geomorphological evolution of lake basins on the Arctic Coastal Plain. April 2001 conditions were drilling on frozen surfaces, August 2000, 2001 field conditions were thawed to ~50 cm.