Paleobiology of the Sand Beneath the Valders Diamicton at Valders, Wisconsin

1998 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis J. Maher ◽  
Norton G. Miller ◽  
Richard G. Baker ◽  
B.Brandon Curry ◽  
David M. Mickelson
Keyword(s):  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Silty Sand ◽  
Local Concentration ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Vaccinium Uliginosum ◽  
Ice Wedge ◽  
Armeria Maritima ◽  
Mineral Soils

Previously undescribed pollen, plant macrofossils, molluscs, and ostracodes were recovered from a 2.5-m-thick glaciolacustrine unit of silty sand and clay at Valders, Wisconsin. The interstadial sediment was deposited about 12,200 14C yr B.P. after retreat of the Green Bay lobe that deposited diamicton of the Horicon Formation, and before advance of the Lake Michigan lobe that deposited the red-brown diamicton of the Valders Member of the Kewaunee Formation. Fluctuations of abundance of Candona subtriangulata, Cytherissa lacustris, and three other species define four ostracode biozones in the lower 1.7 m, suggesting an open lake environment that oscillated in depth and proximity to glacial ice. Pollen is dominated by Picea and Artemisia, but the low percentages of many other types of long-distance origin suggest that the terrestrial vegetation was open and far from the forest border. The upper part of the sediment, a massive sand deposited in either a shallow pond or a sluggish stream, contains a local concentration of plant macrofossils. The interpretation of a cold open environment is supported by the plant macrofossils of more than 20 species, dominated by those of open mineral soils ( Arenaria rubella, Cerastium alpinum type, Silene acaulis, Sibbaldia procumbens, Dryas integrifolia, Vaccinium uliginosum var. alpinum, Armeria maritima, etc.) that in North America occur largely in the tundra and open tundra–forest ecotone of northern Canada. Ice-wedge casts occur in the sand.

Plant and Insect Remains from the Wisconsinan Interstadial/Stadial Transition at Wedron, North-Central Illinois

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarke E. Garry ◽  
Donald P. Schwert ◽  
Richard G. Baker ◽  
Tim J. Kemmis ◽  
Diana G. Horton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Ground Beetle ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Silica Sand ◽  
Insect Fauna ◽  
Vaccinium Uliginosum ◽  
Radiocarbon Age ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Central Illinois

AbstractOrganic material exposed within a small swale fill in Pit 6 of the Wedron Silica Sand Co. near Wedron in LaSalle County, Illinois, includes well-preserved pollen, plant macrofossils, and insect remains. This material occurs in slackwater sediment in the lower part of the Peddicord Formation, which was deposited as existing valleys were dammed by fluvial aggradation during the initial late Wisconsinan advance of Laurentide ice into the Wedron area. Wood from the organic horizon has a radiocarbon age of 21,460 ± 470 yr B.P. (ISGS-1486). The pollen spectrum is dominated byPicea, Pinus, and Cyperaceae. Plant macrofossils comprise a mix of boreal-forest taxa, includingPicea, Larix laricina, and the mossCampylium stellatum; subarctic species includingBetula glandulosa, Empetrum nigrum, andSelaginella selaginoides; along with the predominantly arcticVaccinium uliginosumvar.alpinum, Dryas integrifolia, andRhododendron lapponicum. The insect fauna contains the western montane ground beetleOpisthius richardsoni; several arctic-subarctic ground beetles includingDiacheila polita, Helophorus sibiricus, andPterostichus (Cryobius) caribou; and a diverse assemblage of insects that today inhabit the boreal forest. We interpret the biotic record to record a phase in the transition from closed boreal forest to open tundra as climatic conditions deteriorated in advance of continental glaciation.

Lake Michigan Beach-Ridge and Dune Development, Lake Level, and Variability in Regional Water Balance

1995 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lichter
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Beach Ridges ◽  
Average Return ◽  
High Lake Level ◽  
High Level ◽  
Regional Water

AbstractA sequence of northern Lake Michigan beach ridges records lake-level fluctuations that are probably related to changes in late Holocene climate. Historically, episodes of falling and low lake level associated with regional drought led to the formation of dune-capped beach ridges. The timing of prehistoric ridge formation, estimated by radiocarbon dating of plant macrofossils from early-successional dune species, shows that return periods of inferred drought, averaged for time intervals of 100 to 480 yr, ranged between 17 and 135 yr per drought during the last 2400 yr. In five of ten of these time intervals, the average return period ranged between 17 and 22 yr per drought. These intervals of frequent ridge formation and drought were associated with the development of parabolic dunes, which is indicative of high lake level and moist climate. This seeming paradox suggests that unusually moist decades alternated with unusually dry decades during these time intervals. Regional water balance probably varied less during the time intervals when ridges formed less often and the lake produced no evidence of high level.

Stratigraphy, Paleontology, and Age of Lake Algonquin Sediments in Southwestern Ontario, Canada

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.F. Karrow ◽  
T.W. Anderson ◽  
A.H. Clarke ◽  
L.D. Delorme ◽  
M.R. Sreenivasa
Keyword(s):  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Alluvial Sediments ◽  
The North ◽  
Lake Algonquin ◽  
Water Stage

AbstractMolluscs, 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.

Interpreting basal sediments and plant fossils in kettle lakes: insights from Silver Lake, Michigan, USA

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-305
Author(s):  
Catherine H. Yansa ◽  
Albert E. Fulton ◽  
Randall J. Schaetzl ◽  
Jennifer M. Kettle ◽  
Alan F. Arbogast
Keyword(s):  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Plant Colonization ◽  
Plant Fossils ◽  
The Core ◽  
Chord Distance ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Silver Lake

We report on pollen, plant macrofossils, and associated lithostratigraphy of a sediment core extracted from the base of Silver Lake, a kettle lake in northern Lower Michigan, USA, which reveal a complex deglacial scenario for ice block melting and lake formation, and subsequent plant colonization. Complementary multivariate statistical and squared chord distance analyses of the pollen data support these interpretations. The basal radiocarbon age from the core (17 540 cal years BP) is rejected as being anomalously old, based on biostratigraphic anomalies in the core and the date’s incongruity with respect to the accepted regional deglaciation chronology. We reason that this erroneous age estimate resulted from the redeposition of middle-Wisconsin-age fossils by the ice sheet, mixed with the remains of plants that existed as the kettle lake formed at ca. 10 940 cal years BP by ice block ablation. Thereafter, the kettle lake became a reliable repository of Holocene-age fossils, documenting a mature boreal forest that existed until 10 640 cal years BP, followed by a pine-dominated mixed forest, an early variant of the mixed conifer–hardwood forest that persists to the present day. Our study demonstrates that researchers investigating kettle lakes, a common depositional archive for plant fossils in deglaciated landscapes, should exercise caution in interpreting the basal (Late Pleistocene/early Holocene-age) part of lake sediment cores.

Paleoecology of late-glacial terrestrial deposits with in situ conifers from the submerged continental shelf of western Canada

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Lacourse ◽  
Rolf W. Mathewes ◽  
Daryl W. Fedje
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Pinus Contorta ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Queen Charlotte Islands ◽  
Subaerial Exposure ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Heracleum Lanatum

AbstractExtensive portions of the continental shelf off the coast of British Columbia were subaerially exposed during Late Wisconsinan deglaciation due to lowering of relative sea level by as much as 150 m. Paleoecological analyses were conducted at two sites on the emergent continental shelf where terrestrial surfaces with in situ conifers are preserved. The woody plant remains confirm that, during the latest period of subaerial exposure, terrestrial vegetation was established on the continental shelf. Microscopic identification of fossil wood, and analyses of pollen and plant macrofossils from the associated paleosols and overlying shallow pond sediments indicate that productive Pinus contorta-dominated communities with abundant Alnus crispa and ferns grew on the shelf adjacent to and on the Queen Charlotte Islands around 12,200 14C yr B.P. Dwarf shrubs including Salix and Empetrum, and herbaceous plants such as Heracleum lanatum and Hippuris vulgaris, were also important components of the shelf vegetation. Near northern Vancouver Island, mixed coniferous forests dominated by Pinus contorta with Picea, Tsuga spp., Alnus spp., and ferns occupied the shelf at 10,500 14C yr B.P.

Palynological and Radiocarbon Evidence for Deglaciation Events in the Green Bay Lobe, Wisconsin

1996 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis J. Maher ◽  
David M. Mickelson
Keyword(s):  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Silty Sand ◽  
Michigan Basin ◽  
Terrestrial Plants ◽  
Green Bay ◽  
Devils Lake ◽  
Western Great Lakes ◽  
Short Time

A new and significant site of organic silty sand has been found beneath the Valders till at Valders Quarry in northeastern Wisconsin. This is now the earliest known late-glacial site associated with red till ice advances in the western Great Lakes area. Leaves of terrestrial plants washed into a small depression provide a date of 12,965 ± 200 yr B.P. (WIS-2293), which is significantly older than the Two Creeks Forest Bed (ca. 11,800 yr B.P.). Percentage and concentration pollen diagrams suggest that the site was open and distant from a closed Picea forest. No wood or Picea needles have been found. This date is statistically indistinguishable from 12,550 ± 233 yr B.P., the mean of three dates for the end of inorganic varve sedimentation at Devils Lake, 160 km southwest at the terminus of the Green Bay Lobe. Assuming that the Green Bay lobe vacated its outermost moraine in the interval from 13,000 to 12,500 yr B.P., only a short time was available for retreat of the ice margin over 350 km, drainage of red sediment from Lake Superior into the Lake Michigan basin, readvance of over 250 km, retreat of at least 80 km, and advance to this site. The time for these events appears to have been too short to resolve by current radiocarbon technique. This extremely rapid collapse of the Green Bay lobe has a calibrated age of about 15,000 cal yr B.P., about that of the dramatic warming seen in the Greenland ice cores.

From source to sink: Glacially eroded, Late Devonian algal “cysts” (Tasmanites) delivered to the Gulf of Mexico during the Last Glacial Maximum

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Kohl ◽  
B. Brandon Curry ◽  
Merrell Miller
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Clay Fraction ◽  
Black Shales ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Source To Sink

The source of reworked Devonian algal “cysts” in last glacial maximum (LGM) sediment in the Gulf of Mexico is traced to their host black shales, which ring the southwestern Great Lakes. The source-to-sink pathway includes intermediate storage in fine-grained LGM glacial lacustrine sediment and till. The “cysts” are pelagic chlorophyllous algae (Tasmanites and Leiosphaeridia), collectively referred to herein as tasmanitids. Radiocarbon dates of syndepositional Gulf of Mexico foraminifera, derived from accelerator mass spectrometry, bracket the Gulf of Mexico sediment age with common tasmanitids from 28.5 ± 0.6−17.8 ± 0.2 cal kyr B.P. Approximately 1400 km north of the Gulf of Mexico, tasmanitids are abundant in Upper Devonian black shales (New Albany, Antrim, and Ohio Shales) that ring the Michigan, Illinois, and Appalachian intracratonic basins. Tasmanitids were eroded from bedrock and incorporated in glacial sediment dating from ca. 28.0−17.6 cal kyr B.P. by the Lake Michigan, and Huron-Erie lobes of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The physical characteristics of tasmanitids are ideal for long-distance transport as suspended sediment (density: 1.1−1.3 g/cc, size ranging from 63 µm to 300 µm), and these sand-sized tasmanitids traveled with the silt-clay fraction. Thus, the source-to-sink journey of tasmanitids was initiated by subglacial erosion by water or friction, sequestering in till or glaciolacustrine sediment, re-entrainment and suspension in meltwater, and final delivery in meltwater plumes to the Gulf of Mexico. River routes included the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Wabash, Kaskaskia, and many of their tributaries. Reworked Devonian tasmanitids are a previously unrecognized link between their occurrence in deep-water deposits of the Gulf of Mexico and the late Wisconsin glacial history of the Upper Mississippi Valley. We propose that tracking occurrences of tasmanitid concentrations from the source area to sink, along with adjunct proxies such as clay minerals, will facilitate a more refined analysis of the timing and duration of megafloods. This study also demonstrates that isotopically dead carbon, from reworked Devonian tasmanitid “cysts,” can contaminate radiocarbon dating of LGM bulk sediment samples toward older ages.

Geology and paleoecology of a Middle Wisconsin fossil occurrence in Zorra Township, southwestern Ontario, Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 386-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.F. Bajc ◽  
P.F. Karrow ◽  
C.H. Yansa ◽  
B.B. Curry ◽  
Jeffrey C. Nekola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Fossil Assemblage ◽  
Long Distance Transport ◽  
Organic Deposit

Nonglacial deposits of Middle Wisconsin age are being discovered with increased frequency across a broad region of southern Ontario, Canada, and provide strong evidence for a time of significant ice withdrawal from the lower Great Lakes region. With each new discovery, a refined understanding of regional climatic and paleoecological environments is emerging. In this paper, we present the results of a sedimentological and paleoecological study of a subtill organic deposit in Zorra Township, southwestern Ontario. The organic deposit, which lies beneath Nissouri Phase Catfish Creek Till (Late Wisconsin), has been dated by accelerator mass spectrometry at between 50.5 and 42.9 14C ka BP. The organic remains are contained within slack water pond deposits infilling a channel incised into till either of Early Wisconsin or Illinoian age. The fossil assemblage appears to be strongly influenced by taphonomic processes, including degradation due to oxidation, bacterial and fungal decay, and glacial overriding. Reworking and (or) recycling and selective sorting as well as long-distance transport has also influenced the composition of the fossil assemblage preserved. Nonetheless, meaningful paleoecological information is still obtained from this record. Collectively, the pollen and plant macrofossils indicate a boreal-type pine–spruce forest with temperatures cooler than present. The absence of arctic tundra plants, as are found in many other deposits of similar age in the lower Great Lakes basin, is notable. A pond or wetland inhabited by shoreline herbs, shrubs, and trees was present at or proximal to the site. The freshwater mollusc and ostracode assemblages are consistent with a shallow water habitat with dense submerged vegetation. The terrestrial mollusc assemblage suggests a taiga or transitional taiga–tundra fauna. Together, these fossil groups provide one of the most comprehensive environmental reconstructions of Middle Wisconsin time (oxygen isotope stage 3 or OIS3) in southern Ontario and serve to build on the ever-increasing database of paleoecological information accumulating for this episode of the late Quaternary.

Petaloid Organs Preserved in an Arctic Plant Macrofossil Assemblage from Full-Glacial Sediments in Southeastern Minnesota

1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Baker ◽  
J. A. Mason ◽  
L. J. Maher
Keyword(s):  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Pollen Spectrum ◽  
Wet Meadows ◽  
Glacial Sediments ◽  
Plant Macrofossil ◽  
Vaccinium Uliginosum ◽  
Arctic Vegetation ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Glacial Time

A small suite of plant macrofossils indicates that southeastern Minnesota supported subarctic to arctic vegetation 18,700 yr B.P. Fossil tepals of Polygonum viviparum are exceptionally well preserved; they occur with more fragmentary remains of Dryas integrifolia, Vaccinium uliginosum var. alpinum, and probable species of arctic Salix, S. cf. herbacea, and S. cf. arctica. The pollen spectrum from this site is dominated by Picea, Pinus, and Cyperaceae, which are typical of midwestern full-glacial sequences. Tundra-like conditions with permafrost were present in southeastern Minnesota during full-glacial time. Local environments 18,700 yr B.P. reconstructed from both physical and paleobotanical evidence include wind-swept ridge tops with thin loess, outcrops of dolostone and sandstone on valley walls, colluvial slopes, sandy to gravelly floodplains, shallow floodplain pools, wet meadows, and peaty turfs, all in a treeless or nearly treeless environment.

scholarly journals Archaeobotanical results from early medieval Radom, Central Poland, with a special emphasis on the oldest finds of bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum)

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Skrzyński
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Useful Plants ◽  
Origanum Vulgare ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Vaccinium Uliginosum ◽  
Central Poland ◽  
Interesting Species ◽  
Bog Bilberry

The article presents one of the most interesting results of an archaeobotanical analysis of material from the early medieval settlement complex in Radom. These results provided data on useful plants and the paleoenvironment of the site. In the case of two species, it was possible to designate specific sites of their origin. The most interesting species mentioned above are Origanum vulgare and Vaccinium uliginosum. The first one could only grow at one site, slightly away from the settlement. Regarding the second species, the closest sites of occurrence of V. uliginosum can presently be found 40 km from the excavated site. This is quite a long distance from the point of view of early medieval man. It is worth emphasising that the finds of bog bilberry are the oldest remains of V. uliginosum that have been discovered at a Polish archaeological site.

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