Late Quaternary sedimentology and geochronology of small playas on the Southern High Plains, Texas and New Mexico, U.S.A.

Playas are small, circular basins forming a ubiquitous component of the southern High Plains landscape. They are filled with carbonaceous mud deposited since the terminal Pleistocene. The stratigraphy and geochronology of 30 playas was investigated to better understand the paleoenvironmental record of basin filling. At the base of the fill in some playas is a well sorted eolian sand dated between ~ 13,000 and ~ 11,000 ¹⁴C yr BP. The beginning of mud deposition, representing aggradation of eolian dust on a moist, vegetated playa floor was largely between ~ 12,000 and ~ 10,500 ¹⁴C yr BP. Playa filling slowed ~ 9000 to ~ 4000 ¹⁴C yr BP, probably due to dry conditions, increased ~ 4000 to ~ 2000 ¹⁴C yr BP, then slowed again. Eolian sand and loam, likely representing regional aridity, accumulated in some basins episodically just prior to ~ 10,700 ¹⁴C yr BP, between ~ 8600 and ~ 4700 ¹⁴C yr BP, and at ~ 1300 ¹⁴C yr BP. Stable C isotopes from one basin indicate that the playa was inundated only seasonally throughout the record beginning ~ 11,500 ¹⁴C yr BP. The phytolith record in that basin indicates an abrupt shift toward cooling ~ 11,400 to ~ 11,200 ¹⁴C yr BP and then increasing importance of xeric-adapted C₄ grasses through the Holocene.     

中原地区晚全新世以来的环境变化

本文利用丰富的历史资料和树木年轮资料,恢复了我国中原地区晚全新世2000余年以来的环境变化,建立了2200余年的降水变化序列。划分了晚全新世以来本地区的干湿和冷暖期。受晚全新世以来的季风环流的影响,本地区环境变化的基本模式是暖湿与冷干对应。然而,在小冰期时期特别是17世纪下半叶以后,这种模式有所改变,即冷湿对应。其主要原因作者认为有二:一是小冰期时期天气系统超常不稳定,这是由于地球气候系统的内外因素改变造成的;二是小冰期时夏季风锋面南移至中原一带,增加了本地区的降水。最后还讨论了晚全新世以来本地区季风变化的过程、机制以及它们所带来的环境变化。并提出了未来环境变化的可能趋向。     

Earliest Cucurbita from the Great Lakes, Northern USA

Directly dated Cucurbita from archaeological sites near Lake Huron expand the range and human usage of adventive, cultivated wild gourds or squash into the Great Lakes region, USA, by 4000 ¹⁴C yr BP. The data also show that domesticated C. pepo squash was cultivated there by 3000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Although milder Hypsithermal climate may have been a contributing factor, squash and gourds expanded northward during the mid-Holocene mainly by human agency and may be the first human-introduced adventive plant in temperate North America. Even after 3000 ¹⁴C yr BP, when domesticated squash generally replaced wild varieties at northern sites, squash stands were probably informally managed rather than intensively cultivated.