Climate and Diet in Fremont Prehistory: Economic Variability and Abandonment of Maize Agriculture in the Great Salt Lake Basin

2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Brenner Coltrain ◽  
Steven W. Leavitt
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Temporal Correlation ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Initial Increase ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Maize Agriculture ◽  
Economic Diversity ◽  
Economic Strategies

Research reported here is based on the stable isotope (δ 13C,δ 15N) and radiocarbon chemistry of Fremont burials from wetlands lining the eastern shores of the Great Salt Lake (GSL). Bone collagen stable isotope signatures covary with reliance on maize and intake of animal protein, facilitating useful reconstructions of past diet. Among the GSL Fremont, economic strategies vary over time with an initial increase in reliance on maize (A.D. 400–850) followed by a period of marked economic diversity (A.D 850–1150) then a return to reliance on wild foods (after A.D. 1150). During the period of greatest economic diversity, male and female diets vary significantly and male diets are correlated with status differences evidenced by grave goods. There is also a clear temporal correlation between the rapid abandonment of maize agriculture and significant moisture anomalies in regional tree-ring chronologies and pollen profiles. These results are discussed in the context of recent arguments regarding economic diversity, social complexity, and the demise of the Fremont.

Early Holocene Great Salt Lake, USA

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles G. Oviatt ◽  
David B. Madsen ◽  
David M. Miller ◽  
Robert S. Thompson ◽  
John P. McGeehin
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Basin Floor ◽  
Lake Floor ◽  
Sulfate Salts ◽  
Brine Shrimp Cysts ◽  
Surficial Deposits ◽  
Apparent Conflict

Shorelines and surficial deposits (including buried forest-floor mats and organic-rich wetland sediments) show that Great Salt Lake did not rise higher than modern lake levels during the earliest Holocene (11.5–10.2 cal ka BP; 10–9 14C ka BP). During that period, finely laminated, organic-rich muds (sapropel) containing brine-shrimp cysts and pellets and interbedded sodium-sulfate salts were deposited on the lake floor. Sapropel deposition was probably caused by stratification of the water column — a freshwater cap possibly was formed by groundwater, which had been stored in upland aquifers during the immediately preceding late-Pleistocene deep-lake cycle (Lake Bonneville), and was actively discharging on the basin floor. A climate characterized by low precipitation and runoff, combined with local areas of groundwater discharge in piedmont settings, could explain the apparent conflict between evidence for a shallow lake (a dry climate) and previously published interpretations for a moist climate in the Great Salt Lake basin of the eastern Great Basin.

scholarly journals Contributions of Lake-Effect Periods to the Cool-Season Hydroclimate of the Great Salt Lake Basin

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen N. Yeager ◽  
W. James Steenburgh ◽  
Trevor I. Alcott
Keyword(s):  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Hypersaline Lake ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Cool Season ◽  
Lake Effect ◽  
Precipitation Estimates ◽  
Radar Imagery ◽  
Precipitation Gauge

AbstractAlthough smaller lakes are known to produce lake-effect precipitation, their influence on the precipitation climatology of lake-effect regions remains poorly documented. This study examines the contribution of lake-effect periods (LEPs) to the 1998–2009 cool-season (16 September–15 May) hydroclimate in the region surrounding the Great Salt Lake, a meso-β-scale hypersaline lake in northern Utah. LEPs are identified subjectively from radar imagery, with precipitation (snow water equivalent) quantified through the disaggregation of daily (i.e., 24 h) Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) and Snowpack Telemetry (SNOTEL) observations using radar-derived precipitation estimates. An evaluation at valley and mountain stations with reliable hourly precipitation gauge observations demonstrates that the disaggregation method works well for estimating precipitation during LEPs. During the study period, LEPs account for up to 8.4% of the total cool-season precipitation in the Great Salt Lake basin, with the largest contribution to the south and east of the Great Salt Lake. The mean monthly distribution of LEP precipitation is bimodal, with a primary maximum from October to November and a secondary maximum from March to April. LEP precipitation is highly variable between cool seasons and is strongly influenced by a small number of intense events. For example, at a lowland (mountain) station in the lake-effect-precipitation belt southeast of the Great Salt Lake, just 12 (13) events produce 50% of the LEP precipitation. Although these results suggest that LEPs contribute modestly to the hydroclimate of the Great Salt Lake basin, infrequent but intense events have a profound impact during some cool seasons.

Nocturnal Low-Level Jet in a Mountain Basin Complex. Part I: Evolution and Effects on Local Flows

2004 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 1348-1365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Banta ◽  
Lisa S. Darby ◽  
Jerome D. Fast ◽  
James O. Pinto ◽  
C. David Whiteman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Gradient ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Cold Pool ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
The South ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Low Level Jet ◽  
Convergence Zones

Abstract A Doppler lidar deployed to the center of the Great Salt Lake (GSL) basin during the Vertical Transport and Mixing (VTMX) field campaign in October 2000 found a diurnal cycle of the along-basin winds with northerly up-basin flow during the day and a southerly down-basin low-level jet at night. The emphasis of VTMX was on stable atmospheric processes in the cold-air pool that formed in the basin at night. During the night the jet was fully formed as it entered the GSL basin from the south. Thus, it was a feature of the complex string of basins draining toward the Great Salt Lake, which included at least the Utah Lake basin to the south. The timing of the evening reversal to down-basin flow was sensitive to the larger-scale north–south pressure gradient imposed on the basin complex. On nights when the pressure gradient was not too strong, local drainage flow (slope flows and canyon outflow) was well developed along the Wasatch Range to the east and coexisted with the basin jet. The coexistence of these two types of flow generated localized regions of convergence and divergence, in which regions of vertical motion and transport were focused. Mesoscale numerical simulations captured these features and indicated that updrafts on the order of 5 cm s−1 could persist in these localized convergence zones, contributing to vertical displacement of air masses within the basin cold pool.

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