scholarly journals An ice-core pollen record showing vegetation response to Late-glacial and Holocene climate changes at Nevado Sajama, Bolivia

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (63) ◽  
pp. 183-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.A. Reese ◽  
K.B. Liu ◽  
L.G. Thompson

AbstractWe present the results of pollen analysis performed on an ice core recovered from Nevado Sajama, Bolivia, dated to 25 ka BP. Low pollen concentrations from 25 to 15 ka BP are consistent with the scenario of an expanded ice cap surrounded by sparse vegetation and cold conditions on the Altiplano during the Last Glacial Maximum. After 15 ka BP, more pollen is present and percentages show vegetation response to climate fluctuations during the late Pleistocene. Initially, high concentrations of Poaceae pollen are replaced by Asteraceae pollen, suggesting the occurrence of dry conditions towards the end of the Bølling–Allerød/Guantiva interstadial. A deglacial climatic reversal is registered in the pollen record by an abrupt decline in Asteraceae and maximum percentages of Poaceae, indicating wet conditions during 14–12 ka BP. The climate changed abruptly to warm and dry after 12 ka BP, but vegetation remained in disequilibrium with climate until 10 ka BP. Pollen results indicate dry conditions at the beginning of the Holocene, with humidity increasing steadily until 8.5 ka BP. Decreased pollen concentration values (used as a moisture availability proxy) place the mid-Holocene dry period between 8 and 5 ka BP. This was followed by wetter conditions to the present day.

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jocelyne C. Bourgeois ◽  
Roy M. Koerner ◽  
Konrad Gajewski ◽  
David A. Fisher

A Holocene record of pollen deposition was obtained from an ice core drilled through the Agassiz Ice Cap. The pollen records long-range atmospheric transport to the ice cap. Pollen concentrations were highest in the early Holocene (∼15 grains/L), decreased in the mid-Holocene (∼6 grains/L), and increased in the late Holocene (∼9 grains/L). In the early Holocene, the higher concentration of tree pollen at a time when large parts of Canada were still ice-covered, and when forest was generally farther away, implies that atmospheric circulation was stronger than at present. Following deglaciation, as vegetation migrated north in central and eastern Canada, sources of pollen were closer to the Agassiz Ice Cap. However, the concentration of tree pollen decreased on the ice cap. This was followed by several relatively rapid changes after 3500 yr ago. Until ca. 3500 yr ago, the pollen concentration curves resembled the ice core δ18O and summer melt layer curves, both regarded as temperature proxies.


2005 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kam-biu Liu ◽  
Carl A. Reese ◽  
Lonnie G. Thompson

AbstractThis paper presents a high-resolution ice-core pollen record from the Sajama Ice Cap, Bolivia, that spans the last 400 yr. The pollen record corroborates the oxygen isotopic and ice accumulation records from the Quelccaya Ice Cap and supports the scenario that the Little Ice Age (LIA) consisted of two distinct phases�"a wet period from AD 1500 to 1700, and a dry period from AD 1700 to 1880. During the dry period xerophytic shrubs expanded to replace puna grasses on the Altiplano, as suggested by a dramatic drop in the Poaceae/Asteraceae (P/A) pollen ratio. The environment around Sajama was probably similar to the desert-like shrublands of the Southern Bolivian Highlands and western Andean slopes today. The striking similarity between the Sajama and Quelccaya proxy records suggests that climatic changes during the Little Ice Age occurred synchronously across the Altiplano.


1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chalmers M. Clapperton ◽  
David E. Sugden ◽  
Jacqueline Birnie ◽  
Mandy J. Wilson

AbstractSouth Georgia provides a terrestrial record of postglacial environmental change from a largely oceanic zone of the Earth. The record is representative of the southern westerlies and provides a link between Antarctica and the temperate zones of southern South America. Evidence from glacial geomorphology, slope stratigraphy, and analyses of environmental indicators in peat and lake cores is used to interpret this record. Wastage of the full-glacial ice cap was interrupted by a late-glacial stade of the outlet and valley glaciers before ca. 10,000 yr B.P. Plant growth had begun at low altitude (<50 m) on the sheltered (lee side) northeast coast within the late-glacial moraine limits by 9700 yr B.P. Environmental conditions on slopes above 80 m probably were too rigorous for a stable vegetation cover until ca. 6400 yr B.P. This was followed by a period from 5600 to 4800 yr B.P. when conditions were warmer than at present by up to 0.6°C. Periods of climatic cooling occurred at ca. 4800-3800 yr B.P., ca. 3400-1800 yr B.P., and within the last 1400 yr. The most extensive Holocene advance of South Georgia glaciers culminated just before 2200 yr B.P. These Holocene temperature changes of between 0.5 and 1.0°C are comparable in scale and timing to those identified from recent analyses of Vostok ice cores from the Antarctic ice sheet.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. Tarasov ◽  
E. V. Bezrukova ◽  
S. K. Krivonogov

Abstract. In this study a radiocarbon-dated pollen record from Lake Kotokel (52°47´ N, 108°07´ E, 458 m a.s.l.) located in southern Siberia east of Lake Baikal was used to derive quantitative characteristics of regional vegetation and climate since about 15 kyr BP (1 kyr=1000 cal. yr) until today. Quantitative reconstruction of the late glacial vegetation and climate dynamics suggests that open steppe and tundra communities predominated in the study area prior to ca. 13.5 kyr BP and again during the Younger Dryas interval, between 12.8 and 11.6 kyr BP. The pollen-based climate reconstruction suggests lower-than-present mean January (~–38°C) and July (~12°C) temperatures and annual precipitation (~270–300 mm) values during these time intervals. Boreal woodland replaced the primarily open landscape around Kotokel three times at about 14.8–14.7 kyr BP, during the Allerød Interstadial between 13.3–12.8 kyr BP and with the onset of the Holocene interglacial between 11.5 and 10.5 kyr BP, presumably in response to a noticeable increase in precipitation, and in July and January temperatures. The maximal spread of the boreal forest (taiga) communities in the region is associated with a warmer and wetter-than-present climate (Tw~17–18°C, Tc~–19°C, Pann~500–550 mm) occurred ca.\\ 10.8–7.3 kyr BP. During this time interval woody vegetation covered more than 50% of the area within a 21×21 km window around the lake. The pollen-based best modern analogue reconstruction suggests a decrease in woody cover percentages and in all climatic variables about 7–6.5 kyr BP. Since that time our results demonstrate gradual decrease in precipitation and mean January temperature towards their present-day values in the region around Lake Kotokel.


2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Jacobs ◽  
W. N. Mode ◽  
C. A. Squires ◽  
G. H. Miller

ABSTRACT The late-glacial and Holocene paleoenvironmental sequence for the Frobisher Bay area is outlined using glacial, sea level, and palynological evidence. A rapid retreat of ice from the late Foxe glacial maximum in the lower part of the bay after 11,000 BP was followed by a series of stillstands or minor readvances between ca. 8500 and 7000 BP and possibly later, before the final disappearance of the inland ice centred near Amadjuak Lake. Lithostratigraphy of three buried organic sections which together represent deposition occurring over the period from 5500 to 400 BP indicates a change from a relatively warm, moist environment before 5500 BP to neoglacial conditions, with the coldest phases centred around 5000, 2700, 1200 BP and probably sometime after 400 radiocarbon years BP. As evidenced by peat growth and pollen data, milder, wetter conditions prevailed from 4500 to 3000 BP and again from ca. 2600 to 1800 BP. Peat growth and soil organic fractions point to lesser mild intervals ca. 900 BP and 400 BP, but these are not apparent in the pollen assemblage. The pollen record does not extend to the last four centuries; however, lichenometric studies of neoglacial moraines by DOWDESWELL (1984) show that the maximum late Holocene advance of glaciers in the area occurred within the last century. Modern pollen samples indicate that the present vegetation of the inner Frobisher Bay area is comparable to that of the milder intervals of the late Holocene.


2013 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Litwin ◽  
Joseph P. Smoot ◽  
Milan J. Pavich ◽  
Helaine W. Markewich ◽  
George Brook ◽  
...  

We document frequent, rapid, strong, millennial-scale paleovegetation shifts throughout the late Pleistocene, within a 100,000+ yr interval (~ 115–15 ka) of terrestrial sediments from the mid-Atlantic Region (MAR) of North America. High-resolution analyses of fossil pollen from one core locality revealed a continuously shifting sequence of thermally dependent forest assemblages, ranging between two endmembers: subtropical oak-tupelo-bald cypress-gum forest and high boreal spruce-pine forest. Sedimentary textural evidence indicates fluvial, paludal, and loess deposition, and paleosol formation, representing sequential freshwater to subaerial environments in which this record was deposited. Its total age"depth model, based on radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence ages, ranges from terrestrial oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 6 to 1. The particular core sub-interval presented here is correlative in trend and timing to that portion of the oxygen isotope sequence common among several Greenland ice cores: interstades GI2 to GI24 (≈ OIS2–5 d). This site thus provides the first evidence for an essentially complete series of "Dansgaard"Oeschger" climate events in the MAR. These data reveal that the ~ 100,000 yr preceding the Late Glacial and Holocene in the MAR of North America were characterized by frequently and dynamically changing climate states, and by vegetation shifts that closely tracked the Greenland paleoclimate sequence.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. Tarasov ◽  
E. V. Bezrukova ◽  
S. K. Krivonogov

Abstract. In this study a radiocarbon-dated pollen record from Lake Kotokel (52°47´ N, 108°07´ E, 458 m a.s.l.) located in southern Siberia east of Lake Baikal was used to derive quantitative characteristics of regional vegetation and climate from about 15 kyr BP (1 kyr=1000 cal. yr) until today. Quantitative reconstruction of the late glacial vegetation and climate dynamics suggests that open steppe and tundra communities predominated in the study area prior to ca. 13.5 kyr BP and again during the Younger Dryas interval, between 12.8 and 11.6 kyr BP. The pollen-based climate reconstruction suggests lower-than-present mean January (~−38°C) and July (~12°C) temperatures and annual precipitation (~270–300 mm) values during these time intervals. Boreal woodland replaced the primarily open landscape around Kotokel three times at about 14.8–14.7 kyr BP, during the Allerød Interstadial between 13.3–12.8 kyr BP and with the onset of the Holocene interglacial between 11.5 and 10.5 kyr BP, presumably in response to a noticeable increase in precipitation, and in July and January temperatures. The maximal spread of the boreal forest (taiga) communities in the region is associated with a warmer and wetter-than-present climate (Tw~17–18°C, Tc~−19°C, Pann~500–550 mm) that occurred ca. 10.8–7.3 kyr BP. During this time interval woody vegetation covered more than 50% of the area within a 21×21 km window around the lake. The pollen-based best modern analogue reconstruction suggests a decrease in woody cover percentages and in all climatic variables about 7–6.5 kyr BP. Our results demonstrate a gradual decrease in precipitation and mean January temperature towards their present-day values in the region around Lake Kotokel since that time.


2017 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann Behling ◽  
Marcelo Accioly Teixeira de Oliveira

AbstractA high-resolution pollen record of the Atlantic rain forest (ARF) biome from the coastal Serra do Tabuleiro mountains of southern Brazil documents an 11,960 yr history of vegetation and climate change. A marked expansion of Weinmannia into the grassland vegetation marks the latter part of the Younger Dryas, reflecting warm and relatively wet conditions. Between 11,490 and 9110 cal yr BP, grasslands became dominant again, indicating a long cold and dry phase, probably in response to the stronger influence of cold South Atlantic seawater and to Antarctic cold fronts. Between 9110 and 2640 cal yr BP, four distinct phases with strong or moderate expansions of different ARF biome taxa were recorded, reflecting warmer and relatively dry conditions with changes in rainfall and length of the annual dry season. After 2640 cal yr BP, the modern ARF biome became established with high amounts of ferns, reflecting somewhat cooler and wetter conditions with a reduced annual dry season. In particular, after 1000 cal yr BP tree ferns increased, reflecting wetter conditions with no dry season.


2004 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt S. McGlone ◽  
Chris S.M. Turney ◽  
Janet M. Wilmshurst

Lithology, pollen, macrofossils, and stable carbon isotopes from an intermontane basin bog site in southern New Zealand provide a detailed late-glacial and early Holocene vegetation and climate record. Glacial retreat occurred before 17,000 cal yr B.P., and tundra-like grassland"shrubland occupied the basin shortly after. Between 16,500 and 14,600 cal yr B.P., a minor regional expansion of forest patches occurred in response to warming, but the basin remained in shrubland. Forest retreated between 14,600 and 13,600 cal yr B.P., at about the time of the Antarctic Cold Reversal. At 13,600 cal yr B.P., a steady progression from shrubland to tall podocarp forest began as the climate ameliorated. Tall, temperate podocarp trees replaced stress-tolerant shrubs and trees between 12,800 and 11,300 cal yr B.P., indicating sustained warming during the Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC). Stable isotopes suggest increasing atmospheric humidity from 11,800 to 9300 cal yr B.P. Mild (annual temperatures at least 1°C higher than present), and moist conditions prevailed from 11,000 to 10,350 cal yr B.P. Cooler, more variable conditions followed, and podocarp forest was completely replaced by montane Nothofagus forest at around 7500 cal yr B.P. with the onset of the modern climate regime. The Cass Basin late-glacial climate record closely matches the Antarctic ice core records and is in approximate antiphase with the North Atlantic.


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