J. Platt Bradbury

Late Quaternary Environmental History of Lake Valencia, Venezuela

Chemical, paleontological, and mineralogical analyses of a 7.5-meter core from the middle of Lake Valencia, Venezuela, have provided information on the paleoclimatic history of this low-elevation, low-latitude site for the last 13,000 years. The data show that dry climates existed in this region from 13,000 years before present (B.P.) until about 10,000 years B.P. The Lake Valencia Basin was occupied by intermittent saline marshes at that time. About 10,000 years B.P., a permanent lake of fluctuating salinity formed and arboreal plant communities replaced the earlier dominant xeric herbaceous vegetation and marsh plants. By 8500 years B.P., Lake Valencia reached moderate to low salinities and discharged water; the modern vegetation became established at that time. After 8500 years B.P., the lake twice ceased discharging as a result of reduced watershed moisture. The second of these drying episodes is still in progress and has been aggravated by human activities in the watershed.

Paleoecological studies at Lake Patzcuaro on the west-central Mexican Plateau and at Chalco in the basin of Mexico

Abstract A 1520-cm sediment core from Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, is 44,000 yr old at the base. All parts of the core have abundant pollen of Pinus (pine), Alnus (alder), and Quercus (oak) with frequent Abies (fir). The interval dated from 44,000 to 11,000 yr ago has a homogeneous flora characterized by abundant Juniperus (juniper) pollen and frequent Artemisia (sagebrush). It is believed to represent an appreciably drier and colder climate than at present. The Holocene at Lake Patzcuaro is characterized by a moderate increase in Pinus pollen and the loss of Juniperus pollen, as the modern type of climate succeeded. Alnus was abundant until about 5000 yr ago; its abrupt decrease with the first appearance of herbaceous weed pollen may reflect the cutting of lake-shore and stream-course alder communities for agricultural purposes, or it may simply reflect a drying tendency in the climate. Pollen of Zea (corn) appears at Lake Patzcuaro along with low peaks of chenopod and grass pollen at 3500 yr B.P. apparently recording a human population large enough to modify the natural environment, as well as the beginning of agriculture. A rich aquatic flora in this phase suggests eutrophication of the lake by slope erosion. In the most recent period corn is absent from the sediments, perhaps reflecting a change in agricultural practices. The environment changes at Lake Patzcuaro are similar to and correlate with those in the Cuenca de Mexico, where diatom stratigraphy from the Chalco basin indicates fluctuations in lake levels and lake chemistry in response to variations in available moisture. Before 10,000 yr ago climates there were cool and dry, and the Chalco basin was occupied by a shallow freshwater marsh that drained north to Lake Texcoco, where saline water accumulated by evaporation. Increases in effective moisture and possible melting of glaciers during the Holocene caused lake levels to rise throughout the Cuenca de Mexico, and Lake Texcoco flooded the Chalco basin with brackish water. After 5000 yr ago such flooding decreased, and shallow freshwater ponds and marshes were restored in the Chalco basin. This environmental change coincides with the appearance of Zea pollen and suggests cultural control of lake levels and salinity.

Regional aridity in North America during the middle Holocene

Increased aridity throughout the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain region during the middle Holo cene has been documented from pollen records, aeolian proxy variables in lake cores, and active sand dune migration. Varve calibration provided by a continuously varved record of the Holocene from a core from Elk Lake, northwestern Minnesota, shows that the influx of aeolian clastic material increased beginning about 8 ka and ended about 3.8 ka, with peak aeolian activity at about 6 ka. If aeolian influx to Elk Lake corresponds in time to aeolian influx in other lakes and to maximum dune activity in Minnesota dune fields, then the varve calibration in Elk Lake provides precise time calibration of periods of peak aeolian activity in Minnesota. Palaeowind studies from the Minnesota dune fields show that the dominant wind direction when the dunes were active was from the northwest, the same as the dominant wind direction in dune fields throughout the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. If the mid-Holocene aeolian activity in Minnesota was driven by an increase in westerly zonal winds, then the varve calibration can be extended to more precisely determine the timing of activity of dunes over a much broader area. We suggest that an increase in the westerly zonal wind field might have a solar-geomagnetic cause.

A synthesis of post-glacial diatom records from Lake Baikal

The biostratigraphy of fossil diatoms contributes important chronologic, paleolimnologic, and paleoclimatic information from Lake Baikal in southeastern Siberia. Diatoms are the dominant and best preserved microfossils in the sediments, and distinctive assemblages and species provide inter-core correlations throughout the basin at millennial to centennial scales, in both high and low sedimentation-rate environments. Distributions of unique species, once dated by radiocarbon, allow diatoms to be used as dating tools for the Holocene history of the lake.Diatom, pollen, and organic geochemical records from site 305, at the foot of the Selenga Delta, provide a history of paleolimnologic and paleoclimatic changes from the late glacial (15 ka) through the Holocene. Before 14 ka diatoms were very rare, probably because excessive turbidity from glacial meltwater entering the lake impeded productivity. Between 14 and 12 ka, lake productivity increased, perhaps as strong winds promoted deep mixing and nutrient regeneration. Pollen evidence suggests a cold shrub — steppe landscape dominated the central Baikal depression at this time. As summer insolation increased, conifers replaced steppe taxa, but diatom productivity declined between 11 and 9 ka perhaps as a result of increased summer turbidity resulting from violent storm runoff entering the lake via short, steep drainages. After 8 ka, drier, but more continental climates prevailed, and the modern diatom flora of Lake Baikal came to prominence.On Academician Ridge, a site of slow sedimentation rates, Holocene diatom assemblages at the top of 10-m cores reappear at deeper levels suggesting that such cores record at least two previous interglacial (or interstadial?) periods. Nevertheless, distinctive species that developed prior to the last glacial period indicate that the dynamics of nutrient cycling in Baikal and the responsible regional climatic environments were not entirely analogous to Holocene conditions. During glacial periods, the deep basin sediments of Lake Baikal are dominated by rapidly deposited clastics entering from large rivers with possibly glaciated headwaters. On the sublacustrine Academician Ridge (depth = 300 m), however, detailed analysis of the diatom biostratigraphy indicates that diastems (hiatuses of minor duration) and (or) highly variable rates of accumulation complicate paleolimnologic and paleoclimatic reconstructions from these records.

Early Holocene change in atmospheric circulation in the Northern Great Plains: an upstream view of the 8.2 ka cold event

Elk Lake, in northwestern Minnesota, contains numerous proxy records of climatic and environmental change contained in varved sediments with annual resolution for the last 10,000 years. These proxies show that about 8200 calendar years ago (8.2 cal. ka; 7300 radiocarbon years) Elk Lake went froma well-stratified lake that was wind-protected in a boreal forest to a wellmixed lake in open prairie savanna receiving northwesterly wind-blown dust, probably from the dry floor of Lake Agassiz. This change in climate marks the initiation of the widely recognized mid-Holocene ‘‘altithermal’’ in central North America. The coincidence of this change with the so-called 8.2 cal. ka cold event, recognized in ice-core and other records fromthe circum-North Atlantic, and thought by some to be caused by catastrophic discharge of freshwater from proglacial lakes Agassiz and Ojibway, suggests that the two ‘‘events’’ might be related. Our interpretation of the Elk Lake proxy records, and of other records from less accurately dated sites, suggests that change in climate over North America was the result of a fundamental change in atmospheric circulation in response to marked changes in the relative proportions of land, water, and, especially, glacial ice in North America during the early Holocene. This change in circulation probably post-dates the final drainage of proglacial lakes along the southern margin of the Laurentide ice sheet, and may have produced a minor perturbation in climate over Greenland that resulted in a brief cold pulse detected in ice cores. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

A climatic-limnologic model of diatom succession for paleolimnological interpretation of varved sediments at Elk Lake, Minnesota

Sediment traps placed in the profundal region of Elk Lake, north central Minnesota during the 1979 spring and 1983–84 fall and spring seasons monitored seasonal diatom production for two climatically distinctive periods. The spring of 1979 was one of the coldest and wettest on record. Ice out at Elk Lake was 10 days later than average, and spring circulation was short. Fragilaria crotonensis dominated the late spring and early summer diatom production in association with Synedra and Cyclotella species, perhaps because rates of phosphorus supply were low compared to silica. The winter of 1983–84 was drier than usual, and the early but cold spring of 1984 caused ice out at Elk Lake to be about 1 week earlier than normal. Spring storms promoted a long and full circulation that allowed Stephanodiscus minulutus to bloom, presumably in response to increased phosphorus loading related to deep and vigorous circulation. The two dominant diatoms in Elk Lake, F. crotonensis and S. minutulus may reflect climatic patterns that control lake circulation. The climatically regulated occurrence of these diatoms is generally, but not specifically, comparable to their distribution in lake surface sediments throughout Minnesota. A combination of regional and lake-specific studies on the controls of diatom succession and distribution provides climatic insights for interpreting paleolimnogical records of diatoms.Sediment traps placed in the profundal region of Elk Lake, north central Minnesota during the 1979 spring and 1983–84 fall and spring seasons monitored seasonal diatom production for two climatically distinctive periods. The spring of 1979 was one of the coldest and wettest on record. Ice out at Elk Lake was 10 days later than average, and spring circulation was short. Fragilaria crotonensis dominated the late spring and early summer diatom production in association with Synedra and Cyclotella species, perhaps because rates of phosphorus supply were low compared to silica. The winter of 1983–84 was drier than usual, and the early but cold spring of 1984 caused ice out at Elk Lake to be about 1 week earlier than normal. Spring storms promoted a long and full circulation that allowed Stephanodiscus minulutus to bloom, presumably in response to increased phosphorus loading related to deep and vigorous circulation. The two dominant diatoms in Elk Lake, F. crotonensis and S. minutulus may reflect climatic patterns that control lake circulation. The climatically regulated occurrence of these diatoms is generally, but not specifically, comparable to their distribution in lake surface sediments throughout Minnesota. A combination of regional and lake-specific studies on the controls of diatom succession and distribution provides climatic insights for interpreting paleolimnogical records of diatoms.

The variability of holocene climate change: evidence from varved lake sediments.

Varved sediments from a lake near the present forest-prairie border in northwestern Minnesota provide an annual record of climate change for the last 10,400 years. Climate-sensitive mineral, chemical, and biological components show that the mid-Holocene dry interval between 8500 and 4000 years ago is asymmetrical and actually consists of two distinct drier pulses separated by a moister interval that lasted about 600 years. Cyclic fluctuations with periods of several hundred years were abrupt and persistent throughout the Holocene and are most clearly recorded within the two drier pulses.

Late Quaternary paleolimnology of Walker Lake, Nevada

Diatoms, crustaceans, and pollen from sediment cores, in conjunction with dated shoreline tufas provide evidence for lake level and environmental fluctuations of Walker Lake in the late Quaternary. Large and rapid changes of lake chemistry and level apparently resulted from variations in the course and discharge of the Walker River. Paleolimnological evidence suggests that the basin contained a relatively deep and slightly saline to freshwater lake before ca. 30 000 years B.P. During the subsequent drawdown, the Walker River apparently shifted its course and flowed northward into the Carson Sink. As a result, Walker Lake shallowed and became saline. During the full glacial, cooler climates with more effective moisture supported a shallow brine lake in the basin even without the Walker River. As glacial climates waned after 15 000 years ago, Walker Lake became a playa. The Walker River returned to its basin 4700 years ago, filling it with fresh water in a few decades. Thereafter, salinity and depth increased as evaporation concentrated inflowing water, until by 3000 years ago Walker Lake was nearly 90 m deep, according to dated shoreline tufas. Lake levels fluctuated throughout this interval in response to variations in Sierra Nevada precipitation and local evaporation. A drought in the Sierras between 2400 and 2000 years ago reduced Walker Lake to a shallow, brine lake. Climate-controlled refilling of the lake beginning 2000 years ago required about one millennium to bring Walker lake near its historic level.Through time, lake basins in the complex Lake Lahontan system, fill and desiccate in response to climatic, tectonic and geomorphic events. Detailed, multidisciplinary paleolimnologic records from related subbasins are required to separate these processes before lake level history can be reliably used to interpret paleoclimatology.

Late-glacial to holocene changes in winds, upwelling, and seasonal production of the northern California current system

Abstract A core 120 km off the coast of southern Oregon was examined for changes in lithology, diatoms, and pollen over the past 30,000 yr. Primary production during the late Pleistocene was about half that of the Holocene. Evidence from diatoms and pollen indicates that summer upwelling was much weaker, implying an absence of strong northerly winds. Early Pliocene diatoms found throughout the late Pleistocene section were probably derived from diatomites east of the Cascades and provide evidence for strong easterly winds over a dry continental interior. The findings verify predictions of a climate model based on glacial maximum conditions. There is no compelling evidence for a climatic reversal corresponding to the European Younger Dryas chron. During the early Holocene (9000−7000 yr B.P.) there may have been years when winds were insufficiently strong to support upwelling, so that warm stratified waters lay closer to the coast.

Sources of glacial moisture in Mesoamerica

Paleoclimatic records from Mesoamerica document the interplay between Atlantic and Pacific sources of precipitation during the last glacial stage and Holocene. Today, and throughout much of the Holocene, the entire region receives its principal moisture in the summer from an interaction of easterly trade winds with the equatorial calms. Glacial records from sites east of 95 ° W in Guatemala, Florida, northern Venezuela and Colombia record dry conditions before 12 ka, however. West of 95 ° W, glacial conditions were moister than in the Holocene. For example, pollen and diatom data show that Lake Patzcuaro in the central Mexican highlands was cool, deep and fresh during this time and fossil pinyon needles in packrat middens in Chihuahua, Sonora, Arizona, and Texas indicate cooler glacial climates with increased winter precipitation. Cold Gulf of Mexico sea-surface temperatures and reduced strength of the equatorial calms can explain arid full and late glacial environments east of 95 ° W whereas an intensified pattern of winter, westerly air flow dominated hydrologic balances as far south as 20 ° N. Overall cooler temperatures may have increased effective moisture levels during dry summer months in both areas.