Severe Little Ice Age drought in the midcontinental United States during the Mississippian abandonment of Cahokia

AbstractDrought has long been suspected as playing an important role in the abandonment of pre-Columbian Native American settlements across the midcontinental United States between 1350 and 1450 CE. However, high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstructions reflecting local effective moisture (the ratio of precipitation to evaporation) that are located in proximity to Mississippi period (1050–1450 CE) population centers are lacking. Here, we present a 1600-year-long decadally resolved oxygen isotope (δ18O) record from Horseshoe Lake (Collinsville, IL), an evaporatively influenced oxbow lake that is centrally located within the largest and mostly densely populated series of Mississippian settlements known as Greater Cahokia. A shift to higher δ18O in the Horseshoe Lake sediment record from 1200 to 1400 CE indicates that strongly evaporative conditions (i.e., low effective moisture) were persistent during the leadup to Cahokia’s abandonment. These results support the hypothesis that climate, and drought specifically, strongly impacted agriculturally based pre-Columbian Native American cultures in the midcontinental US and highlights the susceptibility of this region, presently a global food production center, to hydroclimate extremes.

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Climate change during the Little Ice Age from the Lake Hamana sediment record

Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science ◽

10.1016/j.ecss.2019.04.033 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 223 ◽

pp. 39-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ara Cho ◽

Kaoru Kashima ◽

Koji Seto ◽

Kazuyoshi Yamada ◽

Takumi Sato ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Lake Hamana

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Valley-fill alluviation during the Little Ice Age (ca. A.D. 1400–1880), Paria River basin and southern Colorado Plateau, United States

Geological Society of America Bulletin ◽

10.1130/0016-7606(2002)114<1550:vfadtl>2.0.co;2 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 114 (12) ◽

pp. 1550-1563 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Richard Hereford

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

River Basin ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Colorado Plateau ◽

Ice Age ◽

Valley Fill

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Pre-Columbian agriculture, fire, and Spanish contact: A 4200-year record from Laguna Los Mangos, Costa Rica

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683619862032 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (11) ◽

pp. 1743-1757 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Erik N Johanson ◽

Sally P Horn ◽

Chad S Lane

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Fire History ◽

Ice Age ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Maize Agriculture ◽

Terminal Classic ◽

Early Portion ◽

Southern Central ◽

Subsistence Activities

We present a lake-sediment record of pre-Columbian agriculture and fire history from the lowlands of southern Pacific Costa Rica that captures the arrival of maize agriculture at ca. 3360 cal yr BP in the Diquís subregion of the Gran Chiriquí archeological region. Our 4200-year record from Laguna Los Mangos begins 1000 to 2000 years earlier than other lake records from the region and provides the first microfossil and geochemical evidence of vegetation and fire prior to the establishment of maize agriculture. This early portion of the record shows evidence of fire events associated with land clearance or field preparation and maintenance for subsistence activities. Alternatively, these were wildfires ignited unintentionally by people or naturally by lightning or volcanism. Evidence of early maize by ca. 3200 cal yr BP was found at Laguna Zoncho in the southeastern section of the Diquís subregion. Our discovery of early maize agriculture at ca. 3360 cal yr BP in the Laguna Los Mangos watershed in the northwestern portion of the Diquís subregion indicates a rapid adoption of maize agriculture in the region after initial introduction. Pre-Columbian agriculture and fire activity at Los Mangos is nearly continual until historic times, but with a decline after ca. 1170 cal yr BP, coincident with the early Terminal Classic Drought (TCD). We infer a pronounced drying of the lowland environment at Laguna Los Mangos based on a depositional hiatus in the record at ca. 950 during late TCD. Agricultural proxies indicate reduced watershed activity during the ‘Little Ice Age’ following Spanish contact in southern Central America until the 20th century.

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Increased effective moisture in northern Vietnam during the Little Ice Age

Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology ◽

10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.09.011 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 511 ◽

pp. 449-461 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lora R. Stevens ◽

Brendan M. Buckley ◽

Sung Kim ◽

Pam Hill ◽

Kelsey Doiron

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

Northern Vietnam ◽

Effective Moisture

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Recession of Grasshopper Glacier, Montana, Since 1898

Annals of Glaciology ◽

10.1017/s0260305500001154 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 65-68 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jane G. Ferrigno

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Rocky Mountains ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Rocky Mountain ◽

The United States ◽

Ice Age ◽

Positive Mass ◽

Mountain Glaciers ◽

If Current ◽

Central Rocky Mountains

Grasshopper Glacier is a cirque glacier in the central Rocky Mountains of the United States. It is a remnant of the “Little Ice Age”, rather than the more widespread and older Pinedale Glaciation. The glacier has not been monitored on a regular basis and very few maps have been published of the area, but it has been studied, photographed, occasionally mapped, and described by scientific and non-scientific groups, at different times since 1898. These photographic, cartographic, and written records make it possible to trace the fluctuations of this glacier since 1898. Grasshopper Glacier has had periods of positive mass balance, but the overall trend has been negative, with accelerated melting in recent years. It is estimated that Grasshopper Glacier has lost about 50% of its area and as much as 90% of its volume, since 1898. Other Rocky Mountain glaciers are experiencing similar wastage and, if current conditions continue, these glaciers will disappear by the middle of the next century.

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Late Pleistocene Age of the Type Temple Lake Moraine, Wind River Range, Wyoming, U.S.A.

Géographie physique et Quaternaire ◽

10.7202/032695ar ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 397-401 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Gregory A. Zielinski ◽

P. Thompson Davis

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Sediment Cores ◽

Ice Age ◽

Western United States ◽

Organic Detritus ◽

Wind River Range ◽

Valley Glacier ◽

The Temple

ABSTRACT The type Temple Lake moraine lies about 3 km beyond and roughly 120 m lower than the modern glacier margin and the Gannett Peak (Little Ice Age) moraines deposited in the last few centuries. Because numerous glacial deposits throughout the western United States have been correlated to the Temple Lake moraine its age is important. We retrieved two sediment cores up to six meters long from Rapid Lake, outside the outer type Temple Lake moraine. The 383-413 cm depth dates 11,770 ± 710 yrs (GX-11,772), which we believe reflects the time when silt flux into Rapid Lake was abruptly reduced by the formation of a new sediment trap at Miller Lake as the valley glacier receded from its position at the outer Temple Lake moraine. A radiocarbon date of 11,400 ± 630 yrs BP (GX-12,719) obtained from the lower basin of Temple Lake, inside the inner type Temple Lake moraine, supports this interpretation. Sediments from Miller Lake, inside the outer Temple Lake moraine, that date 8300 ± 475 yrs BP (GX-12,277) are probably well above the bottom of the lake sediment sequence and possibly thousands of years younger than the moraine. We feel that the type Temple Lake moraine dates about 12,000 yrs BP, thus is Late Pleistocene in age. This interpretation is supported by maximum percentages of organic detritus in lake sediments between 10,000 and 8,000 yrs BP, and challenges BEGET's (1983) suggestion that the type Temple Lake moraine is early Holocene in age, a period he calls "Mesogiaciation".

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Recession of Grasshopper Glacier, Montana, Since 1898

Annals of Glaciology ◽

10.3189/s0260305500001154 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 65-68 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jane G. Ferrigno

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Rocky Mountains ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Rocky Mountain ◽

The United States ◽

Ice Age ◽

Positive Mass ◽

Mountain Glaciers ◽

If Current ◽

Central Rocky Mountains

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The Little Ice Age: evidence from a sediment record in Gullmar Fjord, Swedish west coast

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-10-1275-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 1275-1290 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

I. Polovodova Asteman ◽

K. Nordberg ◽

H. L. Filipsson

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Stable Carbon Isotopes ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Cold Water ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Ice Age ◽

Sediment Geochemistry ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Terrestrial Organic Matter ◽

Swedish West Coast

Abstract. We discuss the climatic and environmental changes during the last millennium in NE Europe based on a ca. 8-m long high-resolved and well-dated marine sediment record from the deepest basin of Gullmar Fjord (SW Sweden). According to the 210Pb- and 14C-datings, the record includes the period of the late Holocene characterised by anomalously cold summers and well-known as the Little Ice Age (LIA). Using benthic foraminiferal stratigraphy, lithology, bulk sediment geochemistry and stable carbon isotopes we reconstruct various phases of the cold period, identify its timing in the study area and discuss the land–sea interactions occurring during that time. The onset of the LIA is indicated by an increase in cold-water foraminiferal species Adercotryma glomerata at ~ 1350 AD The first phase of the LIA was characterised by a stormy climate and higher productivity, which is indicated by a foraminiferal unit of Nonionella iridea and Cassidulina laevigata. Maximum abundances of N. iridea probably mirror a short and abrupt warming event at ~ 1600 AD. It is likely that due to land use changes in the second part of the LIA there was an increased input of terrestrial organic matter to the fjord, which is indicated by lighter δ13C values and an increase of detritivorous and omnivorous species such as Textularia earlandi and Eggerelloides scaber. The climate deterioration during the climax of the LIA (1675–1704 AD), as suggested by the increase of agglutinated species, presence of Hyalinea balthica, and a decline of N. iridea may have driven the decline in primary productivity during this time period.

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Vegetational Reconstruction and Climatic Episodes

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/279173 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 206-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

W. Raymond Wood

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

General Land Office ◽

Climatic Regime ◽

Vegetation Models ◽

General Land Office Surveys ◽

Biotic Change

AbstractData from United States General Land Office Surveys are commonly used to create vegetation models for the American Pioneer period. These models are then used as baselines for understanding past biotic change. It should be realized that many of these surveys were made near the end of a climatic episode (the Neo-Boreal or "Little Ice Age") when world temperatures were much lower than at the present time. These baselines therefore do not represent vegetational responses to a climatic regime like that of the present, and the vegetation models must be interpreted accordingly.

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