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During the 1980s, Agriculture Canada pedologists Scott Smith (retired from Summerland Research Station, formerly based in Whitehorse) and Charles Tarnocai (retired from Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa) had a large field program which addressed the trends in soil development in the central Yukon. Across this region, particularly between Whitehorse and Dawson City, the land surfaces and surficial deposits vary greatly in age due to the differing extents of glaciations over the past ~2 million years.

This work built on a pioneering study from the previous decade:
Foscolos, A.E., N.W. Rutter, and O.L. Hughes. 1977. The use of pedological studies in interpreting the Quaternary history of central Yukon Territory. Bulletin 271. Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa. 48 p. https://doi.org/10.4095/103066

Tarnocai and Smith presented their results in two publications:
C. A. S. Smith, C. Tarnocai, and O. L. Hughes. 1986. Pedological investigations of Pleistocene glacial drift surfaces in the central Yukon. Géographie physique et Quaternaire, 40 (1): 29–37. https://doi.org/10.7202/032620ar
Tarnocai, C. and C. A. S. Smith. 1989. Micromorphology and development of some central Yukon paleosols, Canada. Geoderma 45 (2): 145-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7061(89)90047-5

Tarnocai and Smith shared the unpublished data and soil samples from this work with Dr. Paul Sanborn, and this resulted in a student project published as:
Daviel, E., P. Sanborn, C. Tarnocai, and C.A.A. Smith. 2011.Clay mineralogy and chemical properties of argillic horizons in central Yukon paleosols. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 91: 83-93. https://doi.org/10.4141/cjss10067

The Lost Chicken Mine, a placer gold mine in eastern Alaska, approximately 120 km west of Dawson City, Yukon, is an important fossil locality for the late Pliocene (approximately 2.5 – 3.0 million years ago). A comprehensive account of the stratigraphy and paleontology of this site was given by:
Matthews, J.V., Jr., J.A. Westgate, L. Ovenden, L.D. Carter, and T. Fouch. 2003. Stratigraphy, fossils, and age of sediments at the upper pit of the Lost Chicken gold mine: new information on the late Pliocene environment of east central Alaska. Quaternary Research 60: 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0033-5894(03)00087-5

Dr. Paul Sanborn visited the site on July 20, 2004, as part of a group led by Duane Froese (Professor, University of Alberta). The group concentrated on a single exposure (~ 2 m thick) straddling the Lost Chicken tephra, a volcanic ash bed (2.9 ± 0.4 myr) which is a major stratigraphic marker at the site. Sanborn described, photographed, and sampled this exposure, and obtained a basic set of characterization data. Intact samples were collected but thin sections were never produced.

While at the Ministry of Forests, Dr. Paul Sanborn carried out two retrospective studies which examined soil chemical properties at long-term silvicultural research sites where different vegetation types had been created, either as planned or unplanned experiments. These studies were Experimental Project (EP) 660 and a research project at the Archie Creek site.

With support from the Muskwa-Kechika Trust Fund as a Seed Grant, Dr. Paul Sanborn carried out a pilot study of soils in relation to prescribed burning in the Northern Rocky Mountains, in collaboration with Perry Grilz, then a Range Officer in the Ministry of Forests. Sanborn and Grilz conducted 3 days of field work in July 2001. Sanborn wanted to test the utility of plant-derived opal (phytoliths) as a soil indicator of vegetation history, in the hope of distinguishing natural grasslands from those created by anthropogenic burning.

The Kluane Lake area of SW Yukon was a continuing focus of Dr. Paul Sanborn's research for more than a decade, and generated several productive collaborations. Key themes included biological soil crusts in boreal grasslands, and interactions between aeolian sediment deposition, slope processes, and fire in boreal grassland and forest soils.

Research results appeared in these publications:
Marsh, J., Nouvet, S., Sanborn, P., and Coxson, D. 2006. Composition and function of biological soil crust communities along topographic gradients in grasslands of central interior British Columbia (Chilcotin) and southwestern Yukon (Kluane). Canadian Journal of Botany 84: 717-736. https://doi.org/10.1139/b06-026

Pautler, B.G., Reichart, G.-J., Sanborn, P.T., Simpson, M.J., and Weijers, J.W.H. 2014. Comparison of soil derived tetraether membrane lipid distributions and plant-wax δD compositions for reconstruction of Canadian Arctic temperatures. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 404: 78-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.03.038

Sanborn, P. and A.J.T. Jull. 2010. Loess, bioturbation, fire, and pedogenesis in a boreal forest – grassland mosaic, Yukon Territory, Canada. 19th World Congress of Soil Science, Soil Solutions for a Changing World 1 – 6 August 2010, Brisbane, Australia. http://www.iuss.org/19th%20WCSS/Symposium/pdf/0120.pdf

The 2003 field work with Darwyn Coxson was a pilot study to assess the types and distribution of biological soil crusts in boreal grasslands in the Kluane Lake area. Eight sites were visited at which the team sampled the crust and the uppermost A horizon immediately underneath it. Note that site numbers Y03-03, -04, -05, -06, -07, -09, -10 and -12 were indicated as sites 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 12 in Table 1 of Marsh et al. (2006). Additional crust sampling was conducted at two additional sites (“Peninsula”, “Silver City”) in 2004; details of sampling methods and site locations are in Marsh et al. (2006).

Results from 2009 field work were presented in Sanborn and Jull (2010), along with soil charcoal radiocarbon dates from 2003-2008 sampling which were used to reconstruct fire history in the Kluane Lake area. The 2003 (a single site at Silver City), 2004, and 2008 field work consisted of a reconnaissance of grassland and forest sites across a range of aspects and slope positions in order to recover buried soil charcoal.