Late Quaternary Vegetation in the Southwestern Columbia Basin, Washington

1985 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy W. Barnosky
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Ponderosa ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Temperate Climate ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
Columbia Basin ◽  
Tundra Vegetation ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
History Of

A 33,000-yr pollen record from Carp Lake provides information on the vegetation history of the forest/steppe border in the southwestern Columbia Basin. The site is located in the Pinus ponderosa Zone but through much of late Quaternary time the area was probably treeless. Pollen assemblages in sediments dating from 33,000 to 23,500 yr B.P. suggest a period of temperate climate and steppe coinciding with the end of the Olympia Interglaciation. The Fraser Glaciation (ca. 25,000–10,000 yr B.P.) was a period of periglacial steppe or tundra vegetation and conditions too dry and cold to support forests at low altitudes. Aridity is also inferred from the low level of the lake between 21,000 and 8500 yr B.P., and especially after about 13,500 yr B.P. About 10,000 yr B.P. Chenopodiineae and other temperate taxa spread locally, providing palynological evidence for a shift from cold, dry to warm, dry conditions. Pine woodland developed at the site with the onset of humid conditions at 8500 yr B.P.; further cooling is suggested at 4000 yr B.P., when Pseudotsuga and Abies were established locally.

Late Quaternary vegetation, climate, and fire history of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Plain based on a 30,000-yr multi-proxy record from White Pond, South Carolina, USA

2019 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 861-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa R. Krause ◽  
James M. Russell ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
John W. Williams ◽  
Stephen T. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Atlantic Coastal Plain ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mississippian Culture

AbstractThe patterns and drivers of late Quaternary vegetation dynamics in the southeastern United States are poorly understood due to low site density, problematic chronologies, and a paucity of independent paleoclimate proxy records. We present a well-dated (15 accelerator mass spectrometry14C dates) 30,000-yr record from White Pond, South Carolina that consists of high-resolution analyses of fossil pollen, macroscopic charcoal, andSporormiellaspores, and an independent paleotemperature reconstruction based on branched glycerol dialkyl tetraethers. Between 30,000 and 20,000 cal yr BP, openPinus-Piceaforest grew under cold and dry conditions; elevatedQuercusbefore 26,000 cal yr BP, however, suggest warmer conditions in the Southeast before the last glacial maximum, possibly corresponding to regionally warmer conditions associated with Heinrich event H2. Warming between 19,700 and 10,400 cal yr BP was accompanied by a transition from conifer-dominated to mesic hardwood forest.Sporormiellaspores were not detected and charcoal was low during the late glacial period, suggesting megaherbivore grazers and fire were not locally important agents of vegetation change.Pinusreturned to dominance during the Holocene, with step-like increases inPinusat 10,400 and 6400 cal yr BP, while charcoal abundance increased tenfold, likely due to increased biomass burning associated with warmer conditions. Low-intensity surface fires increased after 1200 cal yr BP, possibly related to the establishment of the Mississippian culture in the Southeast.

Late Pleistocene and early Holocene environmental history of southwestern Washington State, U.S.A.

1984 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 619-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy W. Barnosky
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Olympic Mountains ◽  
Tundra Vegetation ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
History Of ◽  
Glacial Time

A comparison of pollen records and associated plant remains from sites along a major precipitation gradient in southwestern Washington enables reconstruction of the late Quaternary environment during glacial and early Holocene time. During the Evans Creek Stade (25 000 – 17 000 years BP) little moisture reached lowlands east of the Olympic Mountains and as a result both the Puget Trough and the Columbia Basin featured a cold dry climate and parkland–tundra vegetation In glacial time, greatest aridity seems to have occurred between 19 000 and 17 000 years BP. After 17 000 years BP the development of mesophytic subalpine parkland suggests that maritime conditions extended farther east into the Puget Trough, and the Cascade Range became an important precipitation divide. Conditions warmer and (or) drier than today developed throughout western Washington between 10 000 and 8000–6000 years BP. Vegetation on opposite sides of the Cascade Range became dissimilar as early as 17 000 years BP, but this trend was accentuated in late glacial and early Holocene time.

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