Abstract

Recent attention to ice patches in the southern Yukon indicates that these features were significant resource locations for past inhabitants of the area, but are a poorly understood part of the cultural landscape. Fluctuations in the formation of ice patches may have been critical in the timing and availability of specific resources. Radiocarbon dates on caribou and bison remains indicate that ice patches were used intermittently throughout the Holocene and were important features within their habitat. To understand ice patches as resource locations, it is necessary to document their depositional and ecological history. Accumulation rates are used to establish a depositional history of ice patches. Plant microfossils (i.e. pollen) collected from stratified layers within the ice, are used to shed light on the ecological history of these locales. Understanding the character of small-scale ecosystem variation among alpine ice patches provides a context for evaluating human land-use of the area.