Dissimilarity Mapping Between Fossil and Contemporary Pollen Spectra in Europe for the Past 13,000 Years

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Huntley
Keyword(s):  
Distance Measure ◽  
Threshold Value ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Paleoclimatic Changes ◽  
Chord Distance ◽  
Changing Patterns

AbstractThe degree of analogy between fossil and contemporary pollen spectra in Europe has been investigated using the chord-distance dissimilarity measure. No-analog pollen spectra represent vegetation without a modern analog and hence, by inference, represent macroclimatic conditions different from any occurring in the region today. Such spectra have minimum chord distances that exceed a threshold value assessed using contemporary samples from the same and different vegetation u units. Contoured maps of minimum chord distance portray the changing patterns of analogous and no-analog pollen spectra, and hence vegetation units, since 13,000 yr B.P. No-analog vegetation units have been extensive in some regions for much of the Holocene, persisting as recently as 1000 years ago in many areas. The chord-distance measure has also been used to explore the patterns, extent, and rates of change in European pollen spectra since 13,000 yr B.P. Pollen spectra changed rapidly during late-glacial and early Holocene times and during the last millennium. Paleoclimatic changes have brought about the major changes in the Holocene paleovegetation of Europe. Human impact upon European vegetation has obscured neither the contemporary relationship between pollen spectra and vegetation nor the climatically determined long-term changes of vegetation across the continent since 13,000 yr B.P.

A quantitative synthesis of Holocene vegetation change in Nigeria (Western Africa)

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110331
Author(s):  
Matthew Adesanya Adeleye ◽  
Simon Edward Connor ◽  
Simon Graeme Haberle
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Chord Distance ◽  
Quantitative Synthesis ◽  
Climatic Regime ◽  
Pollen Records

Understanding long-term (centennial–millennial scale) ecosystem stability and dynamics are key to sustainable management and conservation of ecosystem processes under the currently changing climate. Fossil pollen records offer the possibility to investigate long-term changes in vegetation composition and diversity on regional and continental scales. Such studies have been conducted in temperate systems, but are underrepresented in the tropics, especially in Africa. This study attempts to synthesize pollen records from Nigeria (tropical western Africa) and nearby regions to quantitatively assess Holocene regional vegetation changes (turnover) and stability under different climatic regimes for the first time. We use the squared chord distance metric (SCD) to assess centennial-scale vegetation turnover in pollen records. Results suggest vegetation in most parts of Nigeria experienced low turnover under a wetter climatic regime (African Humid Period), especially between ~8000 and 5000 cal year BP. In contrast, vegetation turnover increased significantly under the drier climatic regime of the late-Holocene (between ~5000 cal year BP and present), reflecting the imp role of moisture changes in tropical west African vegetation dynamics during the Holocene. Our results are consistent with records of vegetation and climatic changes in other parts of Africa, suggesting the Holocene pattern of vegetation change in Nigeria is a reflection of continental-scale climatic changes.

Fluctuations of Outlet and Valley Glaciers in the Southern Andes (Argentina) during the Past 13,000 Years

1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerd Wenzens
Keyword(s):  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern Andes ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Late Glacial And Holocene ◽  
Glacial Time

AbstractIn the southern Argentine Andes, ten advances of valley glaciers were used to reconstruct the late-glacial and Holocene glacier history. The accumulation areas of these glaciers lie in the Precordillera and are thus independent of fluctuations of the South Patagonian Icefield. Like the Viedma outlet glacier, the valley glaciers advanced three times during late-glacial time (14,000–10,000 yr B.P.). The youngest advance correlates with the Younger Dryas Stade, based on two minimum AMS14C dates of 9588 and 9482 yr B.P. The second oldest advance occurred before 11,800 yr B.P. During the first half of the Holocene, (ca. 10,000–5000 yr B.P.), advances culminated about 8500, 8000–7500, and 5800–5500 yr B.P. During the second half of the Holocene, advances occurred between ca. 4500 and 4200 yr B.P., as well as between 3600 and 3300 yr B.P. In the Rı́o Cóndor valley three subsequent advances have been identified.

scholarly journals Impacts of Climate Change on Lake Fluctuations in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiankun Yang ◽  
Xixi Lu ◽  
Edward Park ◽  
Paolo Tarolli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Climate Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
Amu Darya ◽  
Outburst Floods ◽  
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods ◽  
Hindu Kush ◽  
Changing Patterns

Lakes in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan (HKHT) regions are crucial indicators for the combined impacts of regional climate change and resultant glacier retreat. However, they lack long-term systematic monitoring and thus their responses to recent climatic change still remain only partially understood. This study investigated lake extent fluctuations in the HKHT regions over the past 40 years using Landsat (MSS/TM/ETM+/OLI) images obtained from the 1970s to 2014. Influenced by different regional atmospheric circulation systems, our results show that lake changing patterns are distinct from region to region, with the most intensive lake shrinking observed in northeastern HKHT (HKHT Interior, Tarim, Yellow, Yangtze), while the most extensive expansion was observed in the western and southwestern HKHT (Amu Darya, Ganges Indus and Brahmaputra), largely caused by the proliferation of small lakes in high-altitude regions during 1970s–1995. In the past 20 years, extensive lake expansions (~39.6% in area and ~119.1% in quantity) were observed in all HKHT regions. Climate change, especially precipitation change, is the major driving force to the changing dynamics of the lake fluctuations; however, effects from the glacier melting were also significant, which contributed approximately 31.9–40.5%, 16.5–39.3%, 12.8–29.0%, and 3.3–6.1% of runoff to lakes in the headwaters of the Tarim, Amu Darya, Indus, and Ganges, respectively. We consider that the findings in this paper could have both immediate and long-term implications for dealing with water-related hazards, controlling glacial lake outburst floods, and securing water resources in the HKHT regions, which contain the headwater sources for some of the largest rivers in Asia that sustain 1.3 billion people.

Paleochemistry of Lakes Agassiz and Manitoba based on ostracodes

1997 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 699-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Brandon Curry
Keyword(s):  
Overland Flow ◽  
Ionic Composition ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Lake Agassiz ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evaporative Concentration ◽  
Holocene Record

The ionic composition and salinity of Lake Manitoba and its late-glacial precursor, Lake Agassiz, changed significantly over the past 11 000 years. The paleochemical record reported here is based on modern analog environments of ostracodes identified in a new 14.5 m core from southern Lake Manitoba. The ionic composition of Lake Manitoba today is dominated by Na+, Cl−, and HC03−, with much less Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+. Evaporative concentration of modern Lake Manitoba water would lead to greater salinity and the near depletion of Ca2+ due to continued precipitation of calcite. During periods of highest salinity in the Holocene, however, Lake Manitoba supported Limnocythere staplini. Today this species inhabits waters in which [Ca2+] > [HCO3−], including springs associated with groundwater in Paleozoic bedrock discharging into Lake Winnipegosis (and eventually, after much dilution, into Lake Manitoba). Further complicating the Holocene record are intervals containing Limnocythere friabilis that suggest periodic influxes of dilute water, probably from the Assiniboine River, which bypasses Lake Manitoba today. The variations in Holocene paleochemistry indicated by the ostracode record imply changes in the proportion of overland flow plus precipitation relative to groundwater inputs to Lake Manitoba, independent of changes in evaporation relative to precipitation.

Placing Archaeology at the Center of Socio-Natural Studies

2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sander van der Leeuw ◽  
Charles L. Redman
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Slow Moving ◽  
And Training

Changing patterns of university and government research and training in this country and abroad force us, as archaeologists, to regularly reevaluate our disciplinary methods and goals. In the absence of careful consideration of these issues, the relative prominence of archaeology may stagnate or even diminish. From our own experience directing large multidisciplinary research projects, we believe that one particularly productive avenue for future archaeological research will be as collaborators in seeking to better understand contemporary socioenvironmental problems. We argue that current environmental research based in life, earth, and social sciences pays inadequate attention to the long time span and slow-moving processes that often underlie environmental crises. Archaeologists, as purveyors of the past, are well equipped to bring this long-term perspective to bear on contemporary issues. Moreover, we are also trained to work in multiple scales of time and space as well as with scientists from various disciplines. The primary obstacles to achieving the type of transdisciplinary research recommended here emanate from distinct vocabulary, concepts, and practices of each disciplinary tradition. We believe that the time is right and our colleagues are willing to see an enhanced role for archaeologists in the study of contemporary environmental issues.

Évolution postglaciaire des hauts sommets alpins et subalpins de la Gaspésie

1984 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serge Payette ◽  
Francis Boudreau
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Podzolic Soil ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Soil Profiles ◽  
Ecological Situation ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cooling Trend ◽  
Surficial Deposits

The stratigraphy of surficial deposits located in a snow-patch site, at an altitude of 1200 m in the Mount Jacques-Cartier area, provides evidence of a Late Glacial to mid-Holocene deglaciation. During the Late Glacial, or at the beginning of the Holocene, the diamictons on the high summits of the McGerrigle Mountains were affected by a severe periglacial climate, responsible for the formation of most of the periglacial landforms, such as sorted polygons, sorted stripes, stone-banked lobes, and block fields. During the Holocene, these landforms were fossilized by vegetation, and podzolic soil profiles developed within the stony deposits. After the Hypsithermal, a cooling trend was registered in snow-patch sites, where gelifluction was active after ca. 5200, 3470 – 3340, 2500, 2100, 1860, 1490, and 650 BP. Subalpine meadows followed the opening of the forest, at least since 2200 BP, and were due to neoglacial cooling. Within the alpine belt, the coniferous cover regression is registered at least since 1400 BP. During the so-called Little Ice Age of the past centuries, conifers retracted because of periglacial activity, which was followed by the formation of sorted stripes and gelifluction lobes. The extinction of tree species in the alpine tundra is related to periglacial activity, an ecological situation rather specific to the high summits of Gaspé.

scholarly journals Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth during the Holocene (past 11,500 years) from a bipolar ice core array

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sigl ◽  
Matthew Toohey ◽  
Joseph R. McConnell ◽  
Jihong Cole-Dai ◽  
Mirko Severi
Keyword(s):  
Aerosol Optical Depth ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Stratospheric Aerosol ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Generation

Abstract. The injection of sulfur into the stratosphere by volcanic eruptions is the dominant driver of natural climate variability on interannual-to-multidecadal timescales. Based on a set of continuous sulfate and sulfur records from a suite of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, the HolVol v.1.0 database includes estimates of the magnitudes and approximate source latitudes of major volcanic stratospheric sulfur injection (VSSI) events for the Holocene (from 9500 BCE or 11500 year BP to 1900 CE), constituting an extension of the previous record by 7000 years. The database incorporates new-generation ice-core aerosol records with sub-annual temporal resolution and demonstrated sub-decadal dating accuracy and precision. By tightly aligning and stacking the ice-core records on the WD2014 chronology from Antarctica we resolve long-standing previous inconsistencies in the dating of ancient volcanic eruptions that arise from biased (i.e. dated too old) ice-core chronologies over the Holocene for Greenland. We reconstruct a total of 850 volcanic eruptions with injections in excess of 1 TgS, of which 329 (39 %) are located in the low latitudes with bipolar sulfate deposition, 426 (50 %) are located in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropics and 88 (10 %) are located in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) extratropics. The spatial distribution of reconstructed eruption locations is in agreement with prior reconstructions for the past 2,500 years, and follows the global distribution of landmasses. In total, these eruptions injected 7410 TgS in the stratosphere, for which tropical eruptions accounted for 70 % and NH extratropics for 25 %. A long-term latitudinally and monthly resolved stratospheric aerosol optical depth (SAOD) time series is reconstructed from the HolVol VSSI estimates, representing the first Holocene-scale reconstruction constrained by Greenland and Antarctica ice cores. These new long-term reconstructions of past VSSI and SAOD variability confirm evidence from regional volcanic eruption chronologies (e.g., from Iceland) in showing that the early Holocene (9500–7000 BCE) experienced a higher number of volcanic eruptions (+16 %) and cumulative VSSI (+86 %) compared to the past 2,500 years. This increase coincides with the rapid retreat of ice sheets during deglaciation, providing context for potential future increases of volcanic activity in regions under projected glacier melting in the 21st century. The reconstructed VSSI and SAOD data are available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.928646 (Sigl et al., 2021).

scholarly journals Extension of the Holocene Dendrochronology by the Preboreal Pine Series, 8800 to 10,100 BP

Radiocarbon ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (2B) ◽  
pp. 961-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Becker ◽  
Bernd Kromer
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Pine Forests ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
South Central ◽  
Pine Trees ◽  
European Oak

Holocene tree-ring chronologies have been established for south-central Europe covering the past 11,000 years. The Hohenheim absolute oak chronology extends to 4089 bc. The C-calibrated mid-Holocene floating oak master covers a 3181-year period from ca 4045 to 7225 bc. The earliest well-replicated floating oak master (estimated calendar age 7215 to 7825 bc) extends the European oak dendrochronology back to Boreal times.Further extension of the Holocene dendrochronology has been achieved by subfossil oak and pine trees from the Rhine, Main, and Danube Rivers. A 774-year floating series of Preboreal pine has been established. 14C ages range (from younger to older end) from 9200 to 9800 BP. Within this series a major atmospheric 14C variation is indicated, resulting in nearly constant 14C ages (9600 BP) over a period of 370 tree-rings.The European oak and pine tree-ring chronologies cover without major gaps the entire Holocene epoch. Based on the length of the dendro-records, an approximate solar year age of 11,280 years is calculated for the Holocene/Pleistocene boundary.The Preboreal pine forests along the rivers were replaced by mixed oak forests between 9200 and 8800 BP. By linking the earliest oak masters and the Preboreal pine series, the European dendrochronology can be extended up to the end of Late Glacial times.

Enabling Community Well-being Self-Monitoring in the Context of Mining: The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Klinck ◽  
Ben Bradshaw ◽  
Ruby Sandy ◽  
Silas Nabinacaboo ◽  
Mannie Mameanskum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Aboriginal Community ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Community Engaged Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mineral Development ◽  
Iron Deposits ◽  
Term Monitoring

The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach is an Aboriginal community located in northern Quebec near the Labrador Border. Given the region’s rich iron deposits, the Naskapi Nation has considerable experience with major mineral development, first in the 1950s to the 1980s, and again in the past decade as companies implement plans for further extraction. This has raised concerns regarding a range of environmental and socio-economic impacts that may be caused by renewed development. These concerns have led to an interest among the Naskapi to develop a means to track community well-being over time using indicators of their own design. Exemplifying community-engaged research, this paper describes the beginning development of such a tool in fall 2012—the creation of a baseline of community well-being against which mining-induced change can be identified. Its development owes much to the remarkable and sustained contribution of many key members of the Naskapi Nation. If on-going surveying is completed based on the chosen indicators, the Nation will be better positioned to recognize shifts in its well-being and to communicate these shifts to its partners. In addition, long-term monitoring will allow the Naskapi Nation to contribute to more universal understanding of the impacts of mining for Indigenous peoples.

Courting the Youth Vote in 2008: The Obama Effect

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey C Bohl
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Past ◽  
Several Variables ◽  
High Turnout ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Youth Vote

This paper examines a few of the numerous factors that may have led to increased youth turnout in 2008 Election. First, theories of voter behavior and turnout are related to courting the youth vote. Several variables that are perceived to affect youth turnout such as party polarization, perceived candidate difference, voter registration, effective campaigning and mobilization, and use of the Internet, are examined. Over the past 40 years, presidential elections have failed to engage the majority of young citizens (ages 18-29) to the point that they became inclined to participate. This trend began to reverse starting in 2000 Election and the youth turnout reached its peak in 2008. While both short and long-term factors played a significant role in recent elections, high turnout among youth voters in 2008 can be largely attributed to the Obama candidacy and campaign, which mobilized young citizens in unprecedented ways.

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