Distribution of branched GDGTs in surface sediments from the Colville River, Alaska

Significant climate fluctuations in the Arctic over the recent past, and additional predicted future temperature changes, highlight the need for high-resolution Arctic paleoclimate records. Arctic coastal environments supplied with terrigenous sediment from Arctic rivers have the potential to provide annual to subdecadal resolution records of climate variability over the last few millennia. This study examines the source of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in the Colville River, Alaska, and the adjacent Simpson Lagoon and reconstruct temperatures from Simpson Lagoon sediments to evaluate the applicability of this proxy in Arctic estuarine environments