Carbon isotopes in charcoal and soils in studies of paleovegetation and climate changes during the late Pleistocene and the Holocene in the southeast and centerwest regions of Brazil

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E.M Gouveia ◽  
L.C.R Pessenda ◽  
R Aravena ◽  
R Boulet ◽  
R Scheel-Ybert ◽  
...  
Radiocarbon ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. C. R. Pessenda ◽  
Ramon Aravena ◽  
A. J. Melfi ◽  
E. C. C. Telles ◽  
René Boulet ◽  
...  

This paper presents carbon isotope data measured in three soil profiles from the Salitre area, Central Brazil. The study forms part of a research project on tropical and subtropical soils in Brazil, in which the main objective is to use carbon isotopes to provide information about vegetation changes that have occurred in relation to climate changes during the Holocene. 14C data from charcoal samples and soil organic matter (SOM) indicate that the organic matter in the soils studied is of Holocene age at least. Furthermore, the presence of a significant amount of charcoal in the soils suggests that forest fire was a significant ocurrence during the Holocene and probably had an important role in determining the dynamics of forest vegetation in the study area. Correspondingly, 13C data indicate that C3 plants provided the dominant vegetation of the study area, even during the dry periods when savanna vegetation is supposed to have replaced the forest communities. This study contributes to our better understanding of the relation between climatic changes and vegetation in the subtropical region of Brazil.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Welc ◽  
Khodjiakbar Toychiew ◽  
Małgorzata Suska-Malawska ◽  
Leszek Marks ◽  
Monika Mętrak

AbstractScenario of climate changes in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene in Central Asia is very fragmentary and inconsistent. Therefore, interaction between the development and decline of ancient cultures and the climate fluctuations are difficult to be traced. To resolve this problem, the key role can be played by multidisciplinary studies of unique Late Pleistocene and especially Holocene loess – soil succession of the Tien Shan foothills in Uzbekistan. This area yields unique successions of paleosols interbedded with loesses that are particularly useful for paleoclimate analysis. They are represented by continuous and uninterrupted sedimentary sequences with a highly varied record of magnetic susceptibility. As such, they contain a full sequence of short-term climatic oscillations of the Holocene in high resolution and therefore, in this case, they are exceptional on global scale. The correlation of Late Pleistocene and Holocene climate changes scenario with stages of development and collapse of the past human settlement in Central Asia seems at present one of the most promising research directions, in line with the substantial course of interdisciplinary research on the interaction between humans and the natural environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. D. Streletskaya ◽  
A. A. Pismeniuk ◽  
A. A. Vasiliev ◽  
E. A. Gusev ◽  
G. E. Oblogov ◽  
...  

The Kara Sea coast and part of the shelf are characterized by wide presence of the ice-rich permafrost sequences containing massive tabular ground ice (MTGI) and ice wedges (IW). The investigations of distribution, morphology and isotopic composition of MTGI and IW allows paleoenvironmental reconstructions for Late Pleistocene and Holocene period in the Kara Sea Region. This work summarizes result of long-term research of ice-rich permafrost at eight key sites located in the Yamal, Gydan, Taimyr Peninsulas, and Sibiryakov Island. We identified several types of ground ice in the coastal sediments and summarized data on their isotopic and geochemical composition, and methane content. We summarized the available data on particle size distribution, ice chemical composition, including organic carbon content, and age of the enclosing ice sediments. The results show that Quaternary sediments of the region accumulated during MIS 5 – MIS 1 and generally consisted of two main stratigraphic parts. Ice-rich polygenetic continental sediments with syngenetic and epigenetic IW represent the upper part of geological sections (10–15 m). The IW formed in two stages: in the Late Pleistocene (MIS 3 – MIS 2) and in the Holocene cold periods. Oxygen isotope composition of IW formed during MIS 3 – MIS 2 is on average 6‰ lower than that of the Holocene IW. The saline clay with rare sand layers of the lower part of geological sections, formed in marine and shallow shelf anaerobic conditions. MTGI present in the lower part of the sections. The MTGI formed under epigenetic freezing of marine sediments immediately after sea regression and syngenetic freezing of marine sediments in the tidal zone and in the conditions of shallow sea.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Schmidt ◽  
Cathleen Kertscher ◽  
Markus Reichert ◽  
Helen Ballasus ◽  
Birgit Schneider ◽  
...  

<p>The Western Mediterranean region including the North African desert margin is considered one of the most sensitive areas to future climate changes. In order to refine long-term scenarios for hydrological and environmental responses to future climate changes in this region, it is important to improve our knowledge about past environmental responses to climatic variability at centennial to millennial timescales. During the last two decades, the recovery and compilation of Holocene records from the subtropical North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea have improved our knowledge about millennial-scale variability of the Western Mediterranean palaeoclimate. The variabilities appear to affect regional precipitation patterns and environmental systems in the Western Mediterranean, but the timescales, magnitudes and forcing mechanisms remain poorly known. To compare the changes in Holocene climate variability and geomorphological processes across temporal scales, we analysed a 19.63-m long sediment record from Lake Sidi Ali (33°03’ N, 5°00’ W, 2080 m a.s.l.) in the sub-humid Middle Atlas that spans the last 12,000 years (23 pollen-based radiocarbon dates accompanied with <sup>210</sup>Pb results). We use calibrated XRF core scanning records with an annual to sub-decadal resolution to disentangle the complex interplay between climate changes and environmental dynamics during the Holocene. Data exploration techniques and time series analysis (Redfit, Wavelet) revealed long-term changes in lake behaviour. Three main proxy groups were identified (temperature proxies: 2ky, 1ky and 0.7ky cycles; sediment dynamic proxies: 3.5ky, 1.5ky cycles; hydrological proxies: 1.5ky, 1.2ky, 0.17ky cycles). For example, redox sensitive elements Fe and Mn show 1ky cycles and higher values in the Early Holocene and 1.5ky cycles and lower values in the Mid- to Late Holocene. All groups show specific periodicities throughout the Holocene, demonstrating their particular climatic and geomorphological dependencies. Furthermore, we discuss these periodicities relating to global and hemispheric drivers, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Innertropical Convergence Zone variability (ITCZ) and North Atlantic cold relapses (Bond events).</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Belyaev ◽  
Ilya Shorkunov ◽  
Katerina Garankina ◽  
Nikita Mergelov ◽  
Yulia Shishkina ◽  
...  

<p>Recent detailed investigations of landforms, soils and surface deposits of the Borisoglebsk Upland northeastern slope within the Nero Lake basin (Central European Russia, Yaroslavl Region) allowed deciphering co-evolution of the major landscape components of the case study area since the Late Pleistocene. The Late Pleistocene to Holocene transition in the gully network was represented by relatively short but high-magnitude (up to 12 m) incision phase followed by significant infill till 6.5 ka. Absence of the well-developed early Holocene paleosols in the studied sections and cores suggests dominantly negative sediment budget. There is so far limited evidence of sedimentation over the first half of the Holocene. Discontinuous deposition with certain interruptions (but without distinct buried soil formation) occurred only within closed depressions and on gully fans. The second part of the Holocene prior to the widespread human settlement left more substantial traces in soil and sediment record. Despite the common perception of the pristine boreal forest landscapes to be geomorphologically stable due to erosion-protective role of woodland vegetation, several phases of dramatically increased soil and gully erosion rates have been identified. It is identified in soil bodies and sediments, both at locations dominated by denudation (evidences of multiple topsoil truncation in Atlantic and Subatlantic) and at zones of alternating incision and infill of small linear erosion features. Such extremes were most likely associated with combination of several triggers including natural forest fires and high-magnitude rainfall or snowmelt runoff events. There are several <sup>14</sup>C dated layers of pyrogenic charcoal indicating pre-anthropogenic wildfire-induced incision and infill cycles during the middle and late Holocene.</p><p>The last phases of increased hillslope and fluvial activity within the study area can be related to increased human interference, starting from about 1600-900 years ago. The onset of cut-and-burn cultivation is independently established from available archeological evidences, dating of cut and burnt tree logs remnants, organic material buried by agrogenic colluvium and gully fans. Latest period of intensive gully growth can most likely be attributed to the XIX<sup>th</sup> Century land tenure reform, when most of the study area gullies experienced significant linear growth, bottom incisions and appearance of several new gully branches. The most recent trend of soil and gully erosion has been evaluated by <sup>137</sup>Cs sediment tracing, soil empirical modeling and comparison of historical and modern maps, airborne photos and satellite images. Rates of soil redistribution on slopes decreased significantly over the last several decades due to combination of natural and anthropogenic impacts: 1) decreased spring snowmelt runoff caused mainly by generally lowered thickness of seasonally frozen topsoil layer; 2) arable land abandonment or shift from row crops and cereals to perennial grass-dominated crop rotations in the post-Soviet period. In addition, local short-term (from several years to within-year) cycles of relatively low-magnitude (not exceeding ±1 m range) incision and infill in gullies are often triggered by biogenic activities, namely beaver dam constructions and breaches and local log jams.</p><p>The study is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 19-77-10061) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 19-29-05238).</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex R. Lechler ◽  
Katharine W. Huntington ◽  
Daniel O. Breecker ◽  
Mark R. Sweeney ◽  
Andrew J. Schauer

AbstractThe Channeled Scabland–Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States preserves geomorphic and pedosedimentary records that inform understanding of late Pleistocene–Holocene paleoclimate change in a region proximal to the last glacial period Cordilleran Ice Sheet. We present a clumped (Δ47) and conventional (δ18O, δ13C) isotopic study of Palouse loess–paleosol carbonates in combination with carbonate radiocarbon (14C) dating to provide new measures of regional late–last glacial (~31–20 cal ka BP) and Holocene soil conditions. Average clumped isotope temperatures (T(Δ47)) for last glacial Palouse loess–paleosol carbonates (9±4°C) are significantly lower than those for Holocene-aged carbonates (T(Δ47)=18±2°C) in study sections. Calculated soil water δ18OVSMOWvalues (−16±2‰) for last glacial carbonates are also offset relative to those for Holocene-aged samples (−11±1‰), whereas calculated soil CO2δ13CVPDBvalues are similar for the Holocene (−16.9±0.2‰) and late–last glacial (−16.7±1.1‰) periods. Together, these paleoclimate metrics indicate late–last glacial conditions of pedogenic carbonate formation in the C3grassland soils of the Palouse were measurably colder (9±5°C) than during the Holocene and potentially reflect a more arid last glacial paleoclimate across the Palouse, findings in agreement with previous proxy studies and climate model simulations for the region.


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