n-Alkane evidence for the onset of wetter conditions in the Sierra Nevada, California (USA) at the mid-late Holocene transition, ~ 3.0 ka

Abstractn-Alkane biomarker distributions in sediments from Swamp Lake (SL), in the central Sierra Nevada of California (USA), provide evidence for an increase in mean lake level ~ 3000 yr ago, in conjunction with widespread climatic change inferred from marine and continental records in the eastern North Pacific region. Length distributions of n-alkane chains in modern plants growing at SL were determined and compared to sedimentary distributions in a core spanning the last 13 ka. As a group, submerged and floating aquatic plants contained high proportions of short chain lengths (< nC25) compared to emergent, riparian and upland terrestrial species, for which chain lengths > nC27 were dominant. Changes in the sedimentary n-alkane distribution over time were driven by variable inputs from plant sources in response to changing lake level, sedimentation and plant community composition. A shift toward shorter chain lengths (nC21,nC23) occurred between 3.1 and 2.9 ka and is best explained by an increase in the abundance of aquatic plants and the availability of shallow-water habitat in response to rising lake level. The late Holocene expansion of SL following a dry mid-Holocene is consistent with previous evidence for increased effective moisture and the onset of wetter conditions in the Sierra Nevada between 4.0 and 3.0 ka.

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Holocene sedimentary architecture and paleoclimate variability at Mono Lake, California

From Saline to Freshwater: The Diversity of Western Lakes in Space and Time ◽

10.1130/2020.2536(19) ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

S.R.H. Zimmerman ◽

S.R. Hemming ◽

S.W. Starratt

Keyword(s):

Sierra Nevada ◽

Lake Level ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Mono Lake ◽

Ice Age ◽

Historical Period ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

The Core ◽

Sedimentary Architecture ◽

Lake Floor

ABSTRACT Mono Lake occupies an internally drained basin on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, and it is sensitive to climatic changes affecting precipitation in the mountains (largely delivered in the form of snowpack). Efforts to recover cores from the lake have been impeded by coarse tephra erupted from the Mono Craters, and by disruption of the lake floor due to the uplift of Paoha Island ~300 yr ago. In this study, we describe the stratigraphy of cores from three recent campaigns, in 2007, 2009, and 2010, and the extents and depths of the tephras and disturbed sediments. In the most successful of these cores, BINGO-MONO10-4A-1N (BINGO/10-4A, 2.8 m water depth), we used core stratigraphy, geochemistry, radiocarbon dates, and tephrostratigraphy to show that the core records nearly all of the Holocene in varying proportions of detrital, volcanic, and authigenic sediment. Both the South Mono tephra of ca. 1350 cal yr B.P. (calibrated years before A.D. 1950) and the 600-yr-old North Mono–Inyo tephra are present in the BINGO/10-4A core, as are several older, as-yet-unidentified tephras. Laminated muds are inferred to indicate a relatively deep lake (³10 m over the core site) during the Early Holocene, similar to many records across the region during that period. The Middle and Late Holocene units are more coarsely bedded, and coarser grain size and greater and more variable amounts of authigenic carbonate detritus in this interval are taken to suggest lower lake levels, possibly due to lower effective wetness. A very low lake level, likely related to extreme drought, is inferred to have occurred sometime between 3500 and 2100 cal yr B.P. This interval likely corresponds to the previously documented Marina Low Stand and the regional Late Holocene Dry Period. The BINGO/10-4A core does not preserve a complete record of the period encompassing the Medieval Climate Anomaly, the Little Ice Age, and the historical period, probably due to erosion because of its nearshore position.

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Multidecadal, centennial, and millennial variability in sardine and anchovy abundances in the western North Pacific and climate–fish linkages during the late Holocene

Progress In Oceanography ◽

10.1016/j.pocean.2017.09.011 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 159 ◽

pp. 86-98 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Michinobu Kuwae ◽

Masanobu Yamamoto ◽

Takuya Sagawa ◽

Ken Ikehara ◽

Tomohisa Irino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North Pacific ◽

Western North Pacific ◽

Late Holocene

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Columbia-North Pacific Region Comprehensive Framework Study of Water and Related Lands. Appendix I. History of Study

10.21236/ada036549 ◽

1971 ◽

Author(s):

E. L. White ◽

G. J. Gronewald ◽

H. H. Ralphs ◽

G. E. Van Santen

Keyword(s):

North Pacific ◽

Pacific Region ◽

History Of ◽

North Pacific Region ◽

Comprehensive Framework ◽

History Of Study

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A comparison of western Great Basin paleoclimate records for the last 3000 yr: Evidence for multidecadal- to millennial-scale drought

10.1130/2019.2536(11) ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 183-199

Author(s):

Steve P. Lund ◽

Larry V. Benson

Keyword(s):

Sierra Nevada ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Great Basin ◽

Lake Level ◽

Lake Basin ◽

Walker Lake ◽

Pyramid Lake ◽

The Past ◽

Hydrological Variability ◽

Hydrologic Variability

ABSTRACT This paper summarizes the hydrological variability in eastern California (central Sierra Nevada) for the past 3000 yr based on three distinct paleoclimate proxies, δ18O, total inorganic carbon (TIC), and magnetic susceptibility (chi). These proxies, which are recorded in lake sediments of Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake, Nevada, and Mono Lake and Owens Lake, California, indicate lake-level changes that are mostly due to variations in Sierra Nevada snowpack and rainfall. We evaluated lake-level changes in the four Great Basin lake systems with regard to sediment-core locations and lake-basin morphologies, to the extent that these two factors influence the paleoclimate proxy records. We documented the strengths and weaknesses of each proxy and argue that a systematic study of all three proxies together significantly enhances our ability to characterize the regional pattern, chronology, and resolution of hydrological variability. We used paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) to develop paleomagnetic chronostratigraphies for all four lakes. We previously published PSV records for three of the lakes (Mono, Owens, Pyramid) and developed a new PSV record herein for Walker Lake. We show that our PSV chronostratigraphies are almost identical to previously established radiocarbon-based chronologies, but that there are differences of 20–200 yr in individual age records. In addition, we used eight of the PSV inclination features to provide isochrons that permit exacting correlations between lake records. We also evaluated the temporal resolution of our proxies. Most can document decadal-scale variability over the past 1000 yr, multidecadal-scale variability for the past 2000 yr, and centennial-scale variability between 2000 and 3000 yr ago. Comparisons among our proxies show a strong coherence in the pattern of lake-level variability for all four lakes. Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake have the longest and highest-resolution records. The δ18O and TIC records yield the same pattern of lake-level variability; however, TIC may allow a somewhat higher-frequency resolution. It is not clear, however, which proxy best estimates the absolute amplitude of lake-level variability. Chi is the only available proxy that records lake-level variability in all four lakes prior to 2000 yr ago, and it shows consistent evidence of a large multicentennial period of drought. TIC, chi, and δ18O are integrative proxies in that they display the cumulative record of hydrologic variability in each lake basin. Tree-ring estimations of hydrological variability, by contrast, are incremental proxies that estimate annual variability. We compared our integrated proxies with tree-ring incremental proxies and found a strong correspondence among the two groups of proxies if the tree-ring proxies are smoothed to decadal or multidecadal averages. Together, these results indicate a common pattern of wet/dry variability in California (Sierra Nevada snowpack/rainfall) extending from a few years (notable only in the tree-ring data) to perhaps 1000 yr. Notable hydrologic variability has occurred at all time scales and should continue into the future.

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Late Pleistocene to present lake-level fluctuations at Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, Nevada, USA

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2018.134 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 92 (1) ◽

pp. 146-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kenneth D. Adams ◽

Edward J. Rhodes

Keyword(s):

Boundary Conditions ◽

River Discharge ◽

Lake Level ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Younger Dryas ◽

Level Curve ◽

Dry Period ◽

Volume Changes ◽

Hydrologic Variability ◽

State Changes

AbstractA new lake-level curve for Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, Nevada, is presented that indicates that after the ~15,500 cal yr BP Lake Lahontan high stand (1338 m), lake level fell to an elevation below 1200 m, before rising to 1230 m at the 12,000 cal yr BP Younger Dryas high stand. Lake level then fell to 1155 m by ~10,500 cal yr BP followed by a rise to 1200 m around 8000 cal yr BP. During the mid-Holocene, levels were relatively low (~1155 m) before rising to moderate levels (1190–1195 m) during the Neopluvial period (~4800–3400 cal yr BP). Lake level again plunged to about 1155 m during the late Holocene dry period (~2800–1900 cal yr BP) before rising to about 1190 m by ~1200 cal yr BP. Levels have since fluctuated within the elevation range of about 1170–1182 m except for the last 100 yr of managed river discharge when they dropped to as low as 1153 m. Late Holocene lake-level changes correspond to volume changes between 25 and 55 km3 and surface area changes between 450 and 900 km2. These lake state changes probably encompass the hydrologic variability possible under current climate boundary conditions.

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Late Holocene landscape change history related to the Alpine Fault determined from drowned forests in Lake Poerua, Westland, New Zealand

Natural Hazards and Earth System Science ◽

10.5194/nhess-12-2051-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 2051-2064 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

R. M. Langridge ◽

R. Basili ◽

L. Basher ◽

A. P. Wells

Keyword(s):

Lake Level ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Alluvial Fan ◽

Time Of Death ◽

Fault Rupture ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Living Tree ◽

Alpine Fault ◽

History Of ◽

Lowland Forests

Abstract. Lake Poerua is a small, shallow lake that abuts the scarp of the Alpine Fault on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Radiocarbon dates from drowned podocarp trees on the lake floor, a sediment core from a rangefront alluvial fan, and living tree ring ages have been used to deduce the late Holocene history of the lake. Remnant drowned stumps of kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides) at 1.7–1.9 m water depth yield a preferred time-of-death age at 1766–1807 AD, while a dryland podocarp and kahikatea stumps at 2.4–2.6 m yield preferred time-of-death ages of ca. 1459–1626 AD. These age ranges are matched to, but offset from, the timings of Alpine Fault rupture events at ca. 1717 AD, and either ca. 1615 or 1430 AD. Alluvial fan detritus dated from a core into the toe of a rangefront alluvial fan, at an equivalent depth to the maximum depth of the modern lake (6.7 m), yields a calibrated age of AD 1223–1413. This age is similar to the timing of an earlier Alpine Fault rupture event at ca. 1230 AD ± 50 yr. Kahikatea trees growing on rangefront fans give ages of up to 270 yr, which is consistent with alluvial fan aggradation following the 1717 AD earthquake. The elevation levels of the lake and fan imply a causal and chronological link between lake-level rise and Alpine Fault rupture. The results of this study suggest that the growth of large, coalescing alluvial fans (Dry and Evans Creek fans) originating from landslides within the rangefront of the Alpine Fault and the rise in the level of Lake Poerua may occur within a decade or so of large Alpine Fault earthquakes that rupture adjacent to this area. These rises have in turn drowned lowland forests that fringed the lake. Radiocarbon chronologies built using OxCal show that a series of massive landscape changes beginning with fault rupture, followed by landsliding, fan sedimentation and lake expansion. However, drowned Kahikatea trees may be poor candidates for intimately dating these events, as they may be able to tolerate water for several decades after metre-scale lake level rises have occurred.

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