Proximity to ice fields and lake depth as modulators of paleoclimate records: a regional study from southwest Yukon, Canada Guangjie ChenDaniel T. SelbieKatherine GriffithsJon N. Sweetman • Morgan BotrelZofia E. TaranuSebastien KnopsJennifer Bondy • Neal MicheluttiJohn P. SmolIrene Gregory-Eaves

Pronounced climate warming during the past century has been well documented in high- latitude regions. Nonetheless, considerable heteroge- neity exists in northern climate trends. We examined the roles of cryospheric landscape and lake depth in modulating the rate and magnitude of local climate responses through a paleolimnological study of lakes from southwest Yukon, Canada. By sampling lakes at varying distances from the Wrangell-St. Elias ice fields, we hypothesized that, for lakes of similar maximum depth, sites closest to the ice fields would be relatively complacent in terms of their chironomid and diatom assemblage changes over the past*200 years. This hypothesis is based on the moderating effect of the glaciers on local climate, which would be most pronounced in the lakes nearest to the ice fields. However, given the known ecological differences between deep and shallow lakes, we further predicted that, for a given distance from the ice fields, a sediment record from a shallower lake would show the greatest change in stratigraphic subfossil assemblages. Because of the complicated shape of the ice fields, we applied the longitude for each site (which decreases from west to east) to approximate the proximity of our study lakes to the ice fields. Consistent with our predictions, we observed a