| The main objective of this research was to examine a suite of time-series proxy data for potential use in the reconstruction of post Last Glacial Maximum climate history for the northern US Rocky Mountain region. I sought to test the hypothesis that data derived from sediments within a very large watershed (>18,000 km2) could provide centennial scale resolution when applied to a basin with multiple climate environs. In this study, I utilized naturally occurring lacustrine sediments from Flathead Lake, Montana to evaluate paleoclimate implications, using a variety of physical, mineralogical, and geochemical data with calculated uncertainty. The results of this research include: (1) development and testing of a methodology for utilizing laser diffraction to determine size fractions of very fine-grained naturally occurring sediments; (2) quantification of methodological uncertainty for paleomagnetic secular variation when used as a chronostratigraphic tool in lacustrine settings; (3) establishment of methodological uncertainty for grain size, mineralogical, and certain geochemical time-series data sets; and (4) evaluation of grain size, mineralogical, carbon/nitrogen, and various elemental analyses and their respective uncertainties for use in paleoclimate reconstructions. |
