Bear Lake Project Summary

Bear Lake Science Summary & Objectives

View towards the north end of Bear Lake and the Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Dingle Swamp.

The USGS Bear Lake Project started in 1998 with the goal of creating records of past climate change for the Bear Lake region, including changes in precipitation (rain and snow) patterns during the last 10,000 years. As part of the project, we're determining how the size of Bear Lake has varied in the past, to assess the possibility of future flooding and drought. Our study includes the upper Bear River watershed. The Bear River is the largest river in the Great Basin and the source of the majority of water flowing into the Great Salt Lake. In this region, wet periods may produce flooding along the course of the Bear River and around Great Salt Lake, while dry periods, or droughts, may affect water availability for agricultural, industrial and residential use.

As part of our study, we seek to understand human influences on sediment deposition, chemistry and life in the lake. For instance, the diversion of the Bear River through the Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge and then into Bear Lake has created changes in the lake chemistry and fauna that are much more abrupt than those caused by climate.

Sediments in Bear Lake provide a detailed, but indirect, record of climate covering the last million years. Records such as this are critical to our understanding of current and future climate changes, because they provide perspective on the trends and magnitude of climate change we observe today. For more information on climate and climate change studies, check out Other Links of Interest.

The Bear Lake Project includes studies of lake sediments obtained by coring, present day sediments from sediment traps, water samples and surface deposits. A wide variety of geochronologic, geochemical and biologic (diatom, ostracode, and pollen) data are being collected to establish a well-dated, multi-record data set. Surficial geology mapping, acoustic tomography, previous research and historical records are used to help us locate appropriate coring sites and interpret our results. The broad array of materials and techniques used in this study integrates efforts by many scientists with expertise in a variety of fields, some of which are not available within the USGS.

Other River Basin Studies in Western North America:

Paleofloods in the Red River Basin
Paleoclimate Data From Sediment Cores
Klamath Basin Setting

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