Reconstruction of climate and ecology of Skagit Valley, Washington, from 27.7 to 19.8 ka based on plant and beetle macrofossils

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jon L. Riedel ◽  
Alice Telka ◽  
Andy Bunn ◽  
John J. Clague
Keyword(s):  
Air Temperature ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Subalpine Forest ◽  
The North ◽  
Modern Distribution ◽  
Temperate Trees ◽  
Dwarf Birch ◽  
Skagit Valley ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract Glacial lake sediments exposed at two sites in Skagit Valley, Washington, encase abundant macrofossils dating from 27.7 to 19.8 cal ka BP. At the last glacial maximum (LGM) most of the valley floor was part of a regionally extensive arid boreal (subalpine) forest that periodically included montane and temperate trees and open boreal species such as dwarf birch, northern spikemoss, and heath. We used the modern distribution and climate of 14 species in 12 macrofossil assemblages and a probability density function approach to reconstruct the LGM climate. Median annual precipitation (MAP) at glacial Lake Concrete (GLC) was ~50% lower than today. In comparison, MAP at glacial Lake Skymo (GLS) was only ~10% lower, which eliminated the steep climate gradient observed today. Median January air temperature at GLC was up to 10.8°C lower than today at 23.5 cal ka BP and 8.7°C lower at GLS at 25.1 cal ka BP. Median July air temperature declines were smaller at GLC (3.4°C–5.0°C) and GLS (4.2°C–6.3°C). Warmer winters (+2°C to +4°C) and increases in MAP (+200 mm) occurred at 27.7, 25.9, 24.4, and 21.2–20.7 cal ka BP. These changes accord with other regional proxies and Dansgaard–Oeschger interstades in the North Atlantic.

scholarly journals Reconstruction of North American drainage basins and river discharge since the Last Glacial Maximum

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew D. Wickert
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Glacial Isostatic Adjustment ◽  
Drainage Basins ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Isostatic Adjustment ◽  
The North ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. Over the last glacial cycle, ice sheets and the resultant glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) rearranged river systems. As these riverine threads that tied the ice sheets to the sea were stretched, severed, and restructured, they also shrank and swelled with the pulse of meltwater inputs and time-varying drainage basin areas, and sometimes delivered enough meltwater to the oceans in the right places to influence global climate. Here I present a general method to compute past river flow paths, drainage basin geometries, and river discharges, by combining models of past ice sheets, glacial isostatic adjustment, and climate. The result is a time series of synthetic paleohydrographs and drainage basin maps from the Last Glacial Maximum to present for nine major drainage basins – the Mississippi, Rio Grande, Colorado, Columbia, Mackenzie, Hudson Bay, Saint Lawrence, Hudson, and Susquehanna/Chesapeake Bay. These are based on five published reconstructions of the North American ice sheets. I compare these maps with drainage reconstructions and discharge histories based on a review of observational evidence, including river deposits and terraces, isotopic records, mineral provenance markers, glacial moraine histories, and evidence of ice stream and tunnel valley flow directions. The sharp boundaries of the reconstructed past drainage basins complement the flexurally smoothed GIA signal that is more often used to validate ice-sheet reconstructions, and provide a complementary framework to reduce nonuniqueness in model reconstructions of the North American ice-sheet complex.

scholarly journals Stationary Wave Reflection as a Mechanism for Zonalizing the Atlantic Winter Jet at the LGM

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (8) ◽  
pp. 3329-3342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Löfverström ◽  
Rodrigo Caballero ◽  
Johan Nilsson ◽  
Gabriele Messori
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Wave Breaking ◽  
Planetary Wave ◽  
Wave Reflection ◽  
Stationary Wave ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
The North ◽  
Nonlinear Reflection ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract Current estimates of the height of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) range from around 3000 to 4500 m. Modeling studies of the LGM, using low-end estimates of the LIS height, show a relatively weak and northeastward-tilted winter jet in the North Atlantic, similar to the modern jet, while simulations with high-end LIS elevations show a much more intense and zonally oriented jet. Here, an explanation for this response of the Atlantic circulation is sought using a sequence of LGM simulations spanning a broad range of LIS elevations. It is found that increasing LIS height favors planetary wave breaking and nonlinear reflection in the subtropical North Atlantic. For high LIS elevations, planetary wave reflection becomes sufficiently prevalent that a poleward-directed flux of wave activity appears in the climatology over the midlatitude North Atlantic. This entails a zonalization of the stationary wave phase lines and thus of the midlatitude jet.

The Magnitude and Proximate Cause of Ice-Sheet Growth Since 35,000 yr B.P.

2001 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac J. Winograd
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Proximate Cause ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
The North ◽  
Data Compilation ◽  
Sst Warming ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

AbstractThe magnitude of late Wisconsinan (post-35,000 yr B.P.) ice-sheet growth in the Northern Hemisphere is not well known. Ice volume at ∼35,000 yr B.P. may have been as little as 20% or as much as 70% of the volume present at the last glacial maximum (LGM). A conservative evaluation of glacial–geologic, sea level, and benthic δ18O data indicates that ice volume at ∼35,000 yr B.P. was approximately 50% of that extant at the LGM (∼20,000 yr B.P.); that is, it doubled in about 15,000 yr. On the basis of literature for the North Atlantic and a sea-surface temperature (SST) data compilation, it appears that this rapid growth may have been forced by low-to-mid-latitude SST warming in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with attendant increased moisture transport to high latitudes. The SST ice-sheet growth notion also explains the apparent synchroneity of late Wisconsinan mountain glaciation in both hemispheres.

scholarly journals Deglaciation of the North Cascade Range, Washington and British Columbia, from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 467 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.L. Riedel
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
North Cascades ◽  
Alpine Glacier ◽  
The North ◽  
Alpine Glaciers ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Glacial retreat from the North Cascade Range after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) at approximately 21 ka until the end of the Pleistocene at 11.6 ka was complex and included both continental and alpine glaciers. Alpine valley glaciers reached their maximum extent before 21.4 ka, then underwent a punctuated retreat to valley heads. In the south, beyond the reach of ice sheet glaciation, several end moraines were deposited after the LGM. Moraines marking a re-advance of alpine glaciers to <5 km below modern glaciers were deposited from 13.7 to 11.6 ka.The Cordilleran Ice Sheet flowed south from near 52° north latitude in British Columbia into the North Cascades. At its maximum size the ice sheet covered more than 500 km2 and had a surface elevation of 2200 m in upper Skagit valley. Deglaciation commenced about 16 ka by frontal retreat of ice flanking the mountains. Surface lowering eventually exposed regional hydrologic divides and stranded ice masses more than 1000 m thick in valleys. Isolated fragments of the ice sheet disintegrated rapidly from 14.5 to 13.5 ka, with the pattern of deglaciation in each valley controlled by valley orientation, topography, and climate. Like alpine glaciers to the south, retreat of the ice sheet remnants was slowed by millennial scale climate fluctuations that produced at least one large recessional moraine, and multiple lateral moraines and kame terraces from elevations of 200-1400 m in most valleys. Large volumes of glacial meltwater flowed through the North Cascades and was concentrated in the Skagit and Methow rivers. Outburst floods from deep proglacial lakes spilled across divides and down steep canyons, depositing coarse gravel terraces and alluvial fans at valley junctions.Climate at the LGM was characterized by a mean summer temperature 6 to 7 ºC cooler than today, and 40% lower mean annual precipitation. Persistence of this climate for thousands of years before the LGM caused a 750-1000 m decrease in alpine glacier equilibrium line altitudes (ELA). In the southern North Cascades at 16 ka, glacial ELAs were 500-700 m lower than today, and during advances from 13.7 to 11.6 ka alpine glacier ELAs were 200-400 m lower.

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