Palynological studies in the western arm of Lake Superior

Lake Superior sediments contain pollen whose changes through time can be corelated with dated pollen diagrams from small lakes in the region. A core collected in 1972 from the deep trough (265 m) off Silver Bay (47° 09′N, 91°20′W) penetrated 6.25 cm of taconite tailings, 55 cm of postglacial silty clay, and 93.5 cm of late-glacial varves. Seven levels in the core were dated by stratigraphic and palynological techniques. The varves stopped forming about 9000 years ago, probably when glacial ice retreated to the north shore. The last 100 varves accumulated at about 10 mm/yr, but the average net sedimentation rate subsequently slowed to 0.05 mm/yr until the time of settlement about 1890. The sedimentation rate then increased by a factor of 10, to 0.5 mm/yr until 1956 when taconite processing began. The postsettlement interval can be recognized by marked increases of ragweed and chenopod pollen that result from land disturbance caused by forest clearance and agriculture. The postsettlement interval is also present at the top of six cores from four other sites in western Lake Superior, collected in water from 25–140 m deep. The postsettlement sedimentation rate varies from 0.1–0.8 mm/yr, suggesting that man has greatly increased sediment yield to the lake in the last 80 years.     

Testing the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm for spatially explicit reconstruction of vegetation in northern Michigan and Wisconsin

The Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA) overcomes some of the fundamental problems in pollen analysis for quantitative reconstruction of vegetation. LRA first uses the REVEALS model to estimate regional vegetation using pollen data from large sites and then the LOVE model to estimate vegetation composition within the relevant source area of pollen (RSAP) at small sites by subtracting the background pollen estimated from the regional vegetation composition. This study tests LRA using training data from forest hollows in northern Michigan (35 sites) and northwestern Wisconsin (43 sites). In northern Michigan, surface pollen from 152-ha and 332-ha lakes is used for REVEALS. Because of the lack of pollen data from large lakes in northwestern Wisconsin, we use pollen from 21 hollows randomly selected from the 43 sites for REVEALS. RSAP indirectly estimated by LRA is comparable to the expected value in each region. A regression analysis and permutation test validate that the LRA-based vegetation reconstruction is significantly more accurate than pollen percentages alone in both regions. Even though the site selection in northwestern Wisconsin is not ideal, the results are robust. The LRA is a significant step forward in quantitative reconstruction of vegetation.     

Changes in the parkland-boreal forest boundary in northwestern Ontario over the Holocene

Changes in vegetation were tracked from a well-dated sediment core from a boreal lake, Lake 239, at ～200-year resolution over the Holocene. This presently oligotrophic lake is located ～100-km east from the present-day parkland-forest ecotone in northwestern Ontario. Near-shore sediment core transects from Lake 239 have previously shown this lake was at least 8-m lower than present in the mid-Holocene, or ～58% less lake volume in comparison to today. Large shifts were expected in the terrestrial vegetation if the low lake levels were related to climate. The core from Lake 239 shows increases in the relative abundance and concentration of pollen such as Cupressaceae and Ambrosia, indicating a more open boreal forest between ～4500–8000 cal yr BP. Pollen-based inferences of average, summer and winter temperatures suggest that temperatures were on average up to 1–2 °C warmer than today, with winter temperatures up to 4 °C warmer. The pollen inferences also suggest enhanced precipitation, likely in the summer, but with an overall increase in evaporation and evapotranspiration resulting in reduced effective moisture. To assess regional climate changes, pollen-based reconstructions of temperature and precipitation were developed and synthesized from sediment cores from eight previously published lakes, from which pollen sites were available to both the west and east of Lake 239, spanning present-day prairie lakes to forested lakes up to 300 km east of the prairie-boreal ecotone. All sites show shifts in pollen assemblages that indicate a warm mid-Holocene period; prairie sites west of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) show mid-Holocene decreases in precipitation relative to today, whereas sites near or east of ELA show consistent increases in precipitation, but with increased temperatures and enhanced evaporation during the mid-Holocene.     

A 10,000-year high-resolution diatom record from Pilkington Bay, Lake Victoria, East Africa

A new diatom record from Lake Victoria’s Pilkington Bay, subsampled at 21- to 25-year intervals and supported by 20 AMS dates, reveals a ∼10,000 calendar year environmental history that is supported by published diatom and pollen data from two nearby sites. With their chronologies adjusted here to account for newly documented ancient carbon effects in the lake, these three records provide a coherent, finely resolved reconstruction of Holocene climate change in equatorial East Africa. After an insolation-induced rainfall maximum ca. 8800-8300 cal yr B.P., precipitation became more seasonal and decreased abruptly ca. 8200 and 5700 yr B.P. in apparent association with northern deglaciation events. Century-scale rainfall increases occurred ca. 8500, 7000, 5800, and 4000 yr B.P. Conditions after 2700 yr B.P. were generally similar to those of today, but major droughts occurred ca. 1200-600 yr B.P. during Europe’s Medieval Warm Period.     

Dominance of an 150-Year Cycle of Sand-Supply Change in Late Holocene Dune-Building along the Eastern Shore of Lake Michigan

Outcrops of buried soils on lake-plains and glacial headlands along Lake Michigan's eastern shore suggest that periodic dune-building has occurred there after relatively long (≥100 yr) periods of low sand supply. We located, described, and radiocarbon dated 75 such buried soils that crop out in 32 coastal dune fields beside the lake. We assume that peaks in probability distributions of calibrated ¹⁴C ages obtained from wood, charcoal, and other organic matter from buried A horizons approximate the time of soil burial by dunes. Plotted against a late Holocene lake-level curve for Lake Michigan, these peaks are closely associated with many 150-yr lake highstands previously inferred from beach ridge studies. Intervening periods of lower lake levels and relative sand starvation apparently permitted forestation and soil development at the sites we studied. While late Holocene lake-level change led to development and preservation of prominent foredunes along the southern and southwestern shores of Lake Michigan, the modern dune landscape of the eastern shore is dominated by perched dunes formed during 150-yr lake highstands over the past 1500 yr.     

Late quaternary vegetational change in the Kotzebue sound area, northwestern Alaska

Two sediment cores from Kaiyak and Squirrel lakes in northwestern Alaska yielded pollen records that date to ca. 39,000 and 27,000 yr B.P., respectively. Between 39,000 and 14,000 yr B.P., the vegetation around these lakes was dominated by Gramineae and Cyperaceae with some Salix and possibly Betula nana/glandulosa forming a local, shrub component of the vegetation. Betula pollen percentages increased about 14,000 yr B.P., indicating the presence of a birchdominated shrub tundra. Alnus pollen appeared at both sites between 9000 and 8000yr B.P., and Picea pollen (mostly P. mariana) arrived at Squirrel Lake about 5000 yr B.P. The current foresttundra mosaic around Squirrel Lake was established at this time, whereas shrub tundra existed near Kaiyak Lake throughout the Holocene. When compared to other pollen records from north-western North America, these cores (1) represent a meadow component of lowland. Beringian tundra between 39,000 and 14,000 yr B.P., (2) demonstrate an early Holocene arrival of Alnus in northwestern Alaska that predates most other Alnus horizons in northern Alaska or northwestern Canada, and (3) show an east-to-west migration of Picea across northern Alaska from 9000 to 5000 yr B.P.     

The northern limits of glacial lake Algonquin in upper Michigan

A number of ancient shorelines formed by late-Pleistocene proglacial lakes have been found in eastern upper Michigan. These shorelines delimit several water planes, the uppermost of which is correlated with the Main Lake Algonquin stage. This correlation is based on the continuity of the highest water plane with Main Algonquin shorelines in Wisconsin and Ontario, the strength of the shoreline features, its altitudinal relationship with lower water planes, and a reinterpretation of radiocarbon dates from the Sault Ste. Maria area. The isobases of this water plane have a bearing of S75°E. At the time of the maximum extent of Lake Algonquin, ca. 10,600 yr B.P., its northern, ice-limited border lay along the Munising moraine, the northernmost of the two main morainic systems of eastern upper Michigan. This interpretation lends support to the idea of a period of slow deglaciation from ca. 11,000 to 10,000 yr B.P. An ice lobe occupied the central Lake Superior basin until early Holocene time. Radiocarbon dates on wood found beneath till or outwash at several sites indicate a minor ice readvance from the central Lake Superior basin ca. 10,000 yr B.P. If true, this would have prevented the development of the post-Duluth series of glacial lakes in the western Lake Superior basin until ca. 9900 yr B.P., well after the end of the main Lake Algonquin stage.     

Calibrating Late Quaternary terrestrial climate signals: radiometrically dated pollen evidence from the southern Sierra Nevada,USA

We constructed a radiometrically calibrated proxy record of Late Pleistocene and Holocene climate change exceeding 230,000 yr duration, using pollen profiles from two cores taken through age-equivalent dry lakes—one core having greater age control (via ²³⁰Th alpha mass-spectrometry) and the other having greater stratigraphic completeness. The better dated of these two serial pollen records (Searles Lake) served as a reference section for improving the effective radiometric age control in a nearby and more complete pollen record (Owens Lake) because they: (1) are situated ∼90 km apart in the same drainage system (on, and immediately leeward of, the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada), and (2) preserved strikingly similar pollen profiles and concordant sequences of sedimentological changes. Pollen assemblages from both lakes are well preserved and diverse, and document serial changes in Late Pleistocene and Holocene plant zone distribution and composition in the westernmost Great Basin; they consist of taxa now inhabiting montane forest, woodland, steppe, and desert-scrub environments. The studied core intervals are interpreted here to be the terrestrial equivalent of marine δ¹⁸O stages 1 through 9; these pollen profiles now appear to be among the best radiometrically dated Late Pleistocene records of terrestrial climate change known.     

Late Holocene climatic changes in Tierra del Fuego based on multiproxy analyses of peat deposits

A ca. 1400-yr record from a raised bog in Isla Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, registers climate fluctuations, including a Medieval Warm Period, although evidence for the ‘Little Ice Age’ is less clear. Changes in temperature and/or precipitation were inferred from plant macrofossils, pollen, fungal spores, testate amebae, and peat humification. The chronology was established using a ¹⁴C wiggle-matching technique that provides improved age control for at least part of the record compared to other sites. These new data are presented and compared with other lines of evidence from the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. A period of low local water tables occurred in the bog between A.D. 960-1020, which may correspond to the Medieval Warm Period date range of A.D. 950-1045 generated from Northern Hemisphere tree-ring data. A period of cooler and/or wetter conditions was detected between ca. A.D. 1030 and 1100 and a later period of cooler/wetter conditions estimated at ca. cal A.D. 1800-1930, which may correspond to a cooling episode inferred from Law Dome, Antarctica.     

Reconstructed summer degree days in central Alaska and northwestern Canada since 1524

Three time series based on precisely dated annual tree-ring widths have been used to reconstruct June plus July degree days for the central Alaska and northwestern Canada region. The time series are the longest recently developed chronologies for the area and represent 57 core samples from 27 trees. The degree-day reconstruction, extending back to A.D. 1524, exhibits much year-to-year variation and extended warming and cooling trends including a general warming trend from about 1840 to 1960. The reconstruction is in agreement with some subaretic glacial information and with data of percentage melting from arctic ice cores. This and similar reconstructions can provide quantitative information to compare with general circulation and energy budget models for longer time periods than are available in recorded meteorological data.     

西藏安多的湖泊变化与环境

钻孔和剖面资料表明，西藏安多地区两个较大的现代湖泊，错那湖和兹格塘错湖至迟形成于３５ｋａＢ．Ｐ．。早期两源相连，水位较高。随后因气候变干，湖面下降，但在２０－１７ｋａＢ．Ｐ．期间湖面又重新升高，并保持相对稳定。自１７ｋａＢ．Ｐ．以后，湖面急剧下降，矿化度随这提高，钙质胶结物出现。在此过程中，因湖面阶段性的相对稳定所形成的１０道砂坝堤，反映了该区气候波动的特征。     

Stratigraphy,paleontology, and age of Lake Algonquin sediments in southwestern Ontario,Canada

Molluscs, ostracodes, diatoms, pollen, plant macrofossils, peat, and wood have been found in glacial Lake Algonquin sediments, and estuarine-alluvial sediments of the same age, in southern Ontario. Molluscs and ostracodes are particularly abundant and widespread. Pollen analysis of Lake Algonquin sediments, bogs on the Algonquin terrace, and upland bogs above the Algonquin terrace, indicate that Lake Algonquin was still in existence at the time of the spruce-pine pollen transition, previously dated at an average of 10,600 yr BP at a number of sites in Michigan, Ohio, and southern Ontario. Wood in estuarine-alluvial sediments graded to the Algonquin level is of similar radiocarbon age. Evidence from several sites in the eastern Great Lakes area suggests the presence of a preceding low-water stage (Kirkfield outlet stage); drowned and alluviated valleys and fining-upward sediment sequences have been identified in this study as further supporting evidence. Lake Algonquin drained from the southern sites by isostatic tilting and eventual opening of the “North Bay outlet” some time shortly after 10,400 yr BP.Our radiocarbon dates suggest the low-water stage has an age of about 11,000 yr BP, and that Lake Algonquin drained 10,000–15,000 y. a. Dates previously published for the Lake Michigan basin are generally too young in comparison with ours, and dates on the Champlain Sea are generally too old. More critical evaluation of all dating results is desirable.From fossil remains we suggest a rapidly expanding fauna in the waters of Lake Algonquin. The spruce pollen period was a time of rapid faunal and floral migration, when the ice front was retreating from Kirkfield to North Bay, Ontario. Diversity of some species and fossil numbers increased substantially at the transition from spruce to pine just before Lake Algonquin drained.     

Near east paleomagnetic secular variation recorded in sediments from the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret)

Paleomagnetic records of declination and inclination from sediments recovered from the bed of Lake Kinneret (32.4°N, 35.7°E) have been dated by radiocarbon techniques. The sediments span the last 5000 yr. The changes in inclination down the sediment cores are more pronounced than the declination fluctuations and are repeatable between the three coring sites, which are several kilometers apart. Magnetic susceptibility logs display 13 maxima in the 5-m-long sequences, with a pronounced susceptibility minimum about 1000 yr B.P. Many of the susceptibility maxima and minima can be easily correlated between coring sites and are shown to be dominantly related to changes in sediment carbonate content. The natural remanent magnetization intensity follows a similar pattern to that of susceptibility, and the natural remanence of the Kinneret sediments is presumed to reside in detrital magnetite grains carried into the lake by the river Jordan from the basalt-rich bedrock of the rift floor and the Golan Heights. The ¹⁴C chronology is strongly supported by a pollen study in which pronounced changes in the proportion of olive pollen were interpreted as being due to extensive cultivation of olives around Galilee in the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. The Kinneret paleosecular variation records, if accurately dated, point to a complex spatial pattern of Holocene secular variation with significant variations over distances as small as 1000–2000 km.     

柴达木盆地上新世晚期以来古气候演变的孢粉环境指标重建

本文根据柴达木盆地尕斯库勒湖、大浪滩、察汗斯拉图、昆特依、马海、一里坪、三湖地区15个钻孔岩芯孢粉种属鉴定统计,对其中的蒿属、藜科孢粉含量和蒿藜比值(A/C)进行分析,通过在干旱区该比值现代生态环境意义的了解,重建了柴达木盆地新近纪晚期以来古气候的演变特征。分析表明,柴达木盆地上新世晚期以来气候一直向干旱方向发展,但干湿波动较大,尤其从中更新世以来更为明显。盆地气候干湿变化的空间规律比较明显,总体上有从东部湿润到西部干旱的特征,这种空间规律在下更新世甚至更早时期就已经形成。盆地气候环境的干冷—暖湿气候演变规律说明盆地主要受冬季风和东南、西南季风,以及青藏高原和盆地周围的高山的影响,盆地各处干湿变化特征差异较大。     

Atmospheric deposition of cadmium in the northeastern USA

Lake sediment cores, dated by ²¹⁰Pb, were collected from Spectacle Pond (SP), Massachusetts, and Side Pistol Lake (SPL) and Sargent Mountain Pond (SMP), Maine, USA. SP is a kettle seepage lake in granitic sand and gravel. SMP is a drainage pond on granite with little soil in the small watershed. SPL is a drainage lake in granitic till. The three cores were analyzed for total Cd. For SP and SMP, maximum concentrations of 1.7 and 3.9 mg/kg, four and eight times background concentrations, respectively, occur in the late 1960s. Accumulation rates reach maximum values concurrently with concentration and are 0.054 and 0.016 μg/cm²/a, more than 10 times background. Concentration and accumulation rate age relationships in SMP and SP are similar for background values, timing and magnitude of increase to peak values, and the decrease nearly to background values since about 1975. The chemical response to decreased atmospheric deposition lags in SPL sediment. Kettle-like lakes more clearly indicate changes in atmospheric deposition than drainage lakes.     

Late Quaternary Variations in the Level of Paleo-Lake Malheur, Eastern Oregon

The highest shoreline features of paleo-Lake Malheur are undated gravelly barrier beaches south of Harney Lake that lie ca. 3.5 m higher than the hydrographic outlet of Harney Basin at Malheur Gap (1254 m). The earliest Quaternary record for Lake Malheur consists of occurrences of water-deposited tephra dated to ca. 70,000–80,000 yr ago. The next identified lake interval is dated by shells with ages of ca. 32,000 and 29,500 yr B.P. No dates are available for the terminal-Pleistocene Lake Malheur. Lake(s) were present between ca. 9600 and 7400 yr B.P., although periodic low levels or desiccation are suggested by a paleosol dated as ca. 8000 yr B.P. The lake system probably dried further after 7400 yr B.P., although dates are lacking for the period between ca. 7400 and 5000 yr B.P. Dune deposits on the lake floor are ca. 5000 yr old and indicate generally dry conditions. Fluctuating shallow lakes have probably characterized the last 2000 years. A date of 1000 yr B.P. gives a maximum age for beach deposits at 1254 m, near the basin threshold elevation. Thus, the Malheur Lake system may have drained to the Pacific Ocean by way of Malheur Gap during the latest Holocene.     

Late Quaternary distal tephra-fall deposits in lacustrine sediments, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Tephra-fall deposits from Cook Inlet volcanoes were detected in sediment cores from Tustumena and Paradox Lakes, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, using magnetic susceptibility and petrography. The ages of tephra layers were estimated using 21 ¹⁴C ages on macrofossils. Tephras layers are typically fine, gray ash, 1-5 mm thick, and composed of varying proportions of glass shards, pumice, and glass-coated phenocrysts. Of the two lakes, Paradox Lake contained a higher frequency of tephra (0.8 tephra/100 yr; 109 over the 13,200-yr record). The unusually large number of tephra in this lake relative to others previously studied in the area is attributed to the lake's physiography, sedimentology, and limnology. The frequency of ash fall was not constant through the Holocene. In Paradox Lake, tephra layers are absent between ca. 800-2200, 3800-4800, and 9000-10,300 cal yr BP, despite continuously layered lacustrine sediment. In contrast, between 5000 and 9000 cal yr BP, an average of 1.7 tephra layers are present per 100 yr. The peak period of tephra fall (7000-9000 cal yr BP; 2.6 tephra/100 yr) in Paradox Lake is consistent with the increase in volcanism between 7000 and 9000 yr ago recorded in the Greenland ice cores.     

Holocene Monsoon Changes Inferred from Lake Sediment Pollen and Carbonate Records, Northeastern Cambodia

Major Holocene monsoon changes in continental Southeast Asia are reconstructed from analysis of ¹⁴C-dated changes in pollen and organic/inorganic carbon in sediment cores taken from permanent, closed-basin, volcanic lakes in Ratanakiri Province, northeastern Cambodia. Analysis focuses on the nature and timing of monsoon changes, inferred from changes in vegetation and lake conditions. These data provide the first well-dated palynological record, covering most of the Holocene and continuous up to the present, from a terrestrial site in mainland Southeast Asia. The record from a 15-m core retrieved from Kara Lake, representing the last 9300 years, shows that the late Glacial conditions ended about 8500 ¹⁴C yr B.P., more than 1000 years later than sites in southwest China. Summer monsoon intensity increased over the period ca. 8400–5300 ¹⁴C yr B.P., similar to most other sites in the Asian monsoon region. A subsequent expansion of secondary forests at the expense of dense semievergreen forests suggest a drier climate leading to more frequent fire disturbance. After ca. 3500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. disturbance frequency may have increased further with increasing seasonality. From ca. 2500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. to the present, dense forest has recovered in a mosaic with annually burned dry forest, but climate may not be the main control on local vegetation dynamics in the late Holocene.     

Late-Glacial climatic changes in Eastern France (Lake Lautrey) from pollen, lake-levels, and chironomids

High-temporal resolution analyses of pollen, chironomid, and lake-level records from Lake Lautrey provide multi-proxy, quantitative estimates of climatic change during the Late-Glacial period in eastern France. Past temperature and moisture parameters were estimated using modern analogues and ‘plant functional types’ transfer-function methods for three pollen records obtained from different localities within the paleolake basin. The comparison of these methods shows that they provide generally similar climate signals, with the exception of the Bölling. Comparison of pollen- and chironomid-based temperature of the warmest month reconstructions generally agree, except during the Bölling. Major abrupt changes associated with the Oldest Dryas/Bölling, Alleröd/Younger Dryas, and the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transitions were quantified as well as other minor fluctuations related to the cold events (e.g., Preboreal oscillation). The temperature of the warmest month increased by ∼5°C at the start of Bölling, and by 1.5°-3°C at the onset of the Holocene, while it fell by ca. 3° to 4°C at the beginning of Younger Dryas. The comparative analysis of the results based on the three Lautrey cores have highlighted significant differences in the climate reconstructions related to the location of each core, underlining the caution that is needed when studying single cores not taken from deepest part of lake basins.     

The deglaciation history of the Lake Superior region and its climatic implications

A zone of synchronous end moraines has been recognized in the Lake Superior region across northern Ontario and Michigan. The moraines were formed between 11,000 and 10,100 y.a. as cold climate resulted in successive halts in the general ice retreat. The cold climate is also indicated by the presence of tundra near Lake Superior until about 10,000 y.a. This episode is here referred to as the Algonquin Stadial. It was preceded and followed by rapid deglaciation. The Algonquin Stadial is comparable in age with the Younger Dryas Stadial of Europe, and indicates a reversal in the continuous trend toward a warmer climate during Late-Wisconsin (an) time. The apparent conflict between the present result (based on geologic evidence) and earlier pollen stratigraphical studies with no reversal is discussed.Glacial Lake Duluth formed in the western Lake Superior basin before 11,000 BP, followed by a series of Post-Duluth lakes between approximately 11,000 and over 10,100 BP. The Main Lake Algonquin stage in the Huron and Michigan basins terminated approximately 11,000 BP. The subsequent high-level post-Main Algonquin lakes, which were contemporaneous with the Post-Duluth lakes, existed in the southeastern Lake Superior basin. When the ice margin was along the north shore 9500 BP Lake Minong occupied the whole Lake Superior basin. By 9000 BP the ice had retreated north of Lake Superior-Hudson Bay divide.