Environmental implications of middle to late Holocene plains pocket gophers in Southeast Missouri

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 175-191
Author(s):  
James J Krakker ◽  
Linda A Krakker
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Before Present ◽  
Pocket Gopher ◽  
Environmental Implications ◽  
Pocket Gophers ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Southeast Missouri ◽  
Geomys Bursarius

Plains pocket gopher, Geomys bursarius, a grassland inhabitant, is common among the mammal taxa identified on the southeast Ozark margin at the Lepold site, 23RI59, Ripley County, Missouri. Its presence throughout the midden depth, whether an incidental inclusion or human prey, implies that a favorable habitat existed in the immediate vicinity. As radiocarbon dates indicate midden deposition began about 7500 radiocarbon years before present, grassland was a component of the local vegetation beginning in the middle Holocene, if not before.

Postglacial Response of a Stream in Central Iowa to Changes in Climate and Drainage Basin Factors

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julieann Van Nest ◽  
E. Arthur Bettis
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Vegetative Cover ◽  
The South ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Water Tables ◽  
Local Water ◽  
Small Tributary

AbstractPostglacial geomorphic development of the Buchanan Drainage, a small tributary to the South Skunk River, is reconstructed by documenting relationships among four allostratigraphic units and 17 radiocarbon dates. Formation and headward expansion of the valley was both episodic and time-transgressive. Response to downstream conditions in the South Skunk River largely controlled the early formation of the basin. Downcutting through Pleistocene deposits produced a gravelly lag deposit that was buried by alluvium in the downstream portion of the valley during the early Holocene (10,500–7700 yr B.P.). Lag deposits formed in a similar manner continued to develop in the upper portion of the drainageway into the late Holocene (3000-2000 yr B.P.). Episodes of aggradation during the middle Holocene (7700-6300 yr B.P.) and late Holocene (3000-2000 yr B.P.) were separated by a period of soil formation. Holocene geomorphic events in the drainageway coincide with some vegetational and climatic changes as documented in upland pollen sequences from central Iowa. Analysis of plant macrofossil assemblages recovered from alluvium indicates that during the middle Holocene forest contracted and prairie expanded into the uplands within the basin. Vegetational changes within the basin apparently had only minor influence on rates of hillslope erosion, and the widely accepted relationship between prairie (versus forest) vegetative cover and increased rates of hillslope erosion did not hold. Instead, greater amounts of erosion occurred under forested conditions when local water tables were higher and seepage erosion was more effective.

Back to Study Hall: Further Reflections on Large Game Hunting During the Middle Holocene in the Great Basin

2010 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 962-965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Hockett
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
American Antiquity ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Small Game ◽  
Faunal Assemblages ◽  
Study Hall ◽  
Game Hunting

Hall's (this issue) comment to my paper published in American Antiquity five years ago (Hockett 2005) makes the following statements: (1) I calculated "depositional rates" for a series of Great Basin faunal assemblages; (2) my analysis did not account for atmospheric radiocarbon fluctuations; and (3) my paper argued "against an increase in hunting artiodactyls from the Middle to Late Holocene." He further argues that recalculation of the data I presented demonstrates that both large-and small-game hunting increased from the Middle to the Late Holocene. Hall is wrong on all accounts. I agree, however, that calibrated dates should now be used instead of the raw radiocarbon dates I used in my original paper. Using calibrated dates, however, does nothing to change the initial patterns I outlined five years ago. Three more recent papers (Hockett 2007, 2009; Hockett and Murphy 2009) on large game hunting in the Great Basin also corroborate my 2005 interpretations.

scholarly journals High-quality fossil dates support a synchronous, Late Holocene extinction of devils and thylacines in mainland Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20170642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren C. White ◽  
Frédérik Saltré ◽  
Corey J. A. Bradshaw ◽  
Jeremy J. Austin
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Extinction Time ◽  
Tasmanian Devil ◽  
Before Present ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Quality Filtering

The last large marsupial carnivores—the Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilis harrisii ) and thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus )—went extinct on mainland Australia during the mid-Holocene. Based on the youngest fossil dates (approx. 3500 years before present, BP), these extinctions are often considered synchronous and driven by a common cause. However, many published devil dates have recently been rejected as unreliable, shifting the youngest mainland fossil age to 25 500 years BP and challenging the synchronous-extinction hypothesis. Here we provide 24 and 20 new ages for devils and thylacines, respectively, and collate existing, reliable radiocarbon dates by quality-filtering available records. We use this new dataset to estimate an extinction time for both species by applying the Gaussian-resampled, inverse-weighted McInerney (GRIWM) method. Our new data and analysis definitively support the synchronous-extinction hypothesis, estimating that the mainland devil and thylacine extinctions occurred between 3179 and 3227 years BP.

scholarly journals Population Dynamics and Human Strategies in Northwestern Patagonia

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 2-21
Author(s):  
Gustavo Neme ◽  
Marcelo Zárate ◽  
María de la Paz Pompei ◽  
Fernando Franchetti ◽  
Adolfo Gil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene

In this paper we evaluate the role of human strategies in the Andean Piedmont from northern Patagonia across the Holocene. Specifically, we present the analysis of the Early Holocene-Late Holocene archaeological record of Salamanca cave (Mendoza-Argentina). We identified technological changes that occurred during the Late Holocene and the implications of a human occupation hiatus in the Middle Holocene. We follow a multiproxy approach by the analysis of radiocarbon dates, archaeofaunal remains, ceramic, lithics and XRF obsidian sourcing. We also discuss a detailed stratigraphic sequence by geomorphological descriptions, the construction of a radiocarbon sequence model and summed probability distributions, compared with other archaeological sites in the region. We conclude that after the Middle Holocene archaeological hiatus, human populations grew while guanaco populations dropped. The imbalance between demography and resources boosted the incorporation of new technologies such as ceramics and the bow and arrow, allowing people to exploit lower-ranked resources.

scholarly journals Late holocene trends of phytoplankton productivity and anoxia as inferred from diatom and geochemical proxies in Lake Victoria, Eastern Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 17663-17682
Author(s):  
M. Andama ◽  
J. B. Lejju ◽  
C. U. Tolo
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Before Present ◽  
Diatom Analysis ◽  
Phytoplankton Productivity ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
Diatom Productivity

Abstract. Lake Victoria ecosystem has undergone major ecological changes in the recent decades. Sedimentary diatom analysis and Fe / Mn determined by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) have provided phytoplankton (diatom) productivity and the resultant anoxia (Fe / Mn) in Lake Victoria at Napoleon Gulf during the late Holocene (1778 cal yr BP (calibrated years before present) to 2008 AD) with radiocarbon dates determined using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry standard method. The results showed that increased total diatom counts in Napoleon Gulf during the late Holocene correspond with increased Fe / Mn ratio (anoxia) in some of the profiles and not in others and in most cases those that correspond correlate very well with increased eutrophication from nitrate input (Total Nitrogen, TN). Therefore slightly increased anoxia not related to increased diatom productivity was recorded in Lake Victoria at Napoleon Gulf from the period 1778 to 1135 cal yr BP. There was slightly increased diatom productivity at Napoleon Gulf from the period 857 to 758 cal yr BP but it did not increase anoxia in the lake. The period 415 cal yr BP to 2008 AD recorded increased anoxia at Napoleon Gulf related to high diatom productivity especially from 415 to 390 cal yr BP and 191 cal yr BP to 2008 AD.

Evaluation of radiocarbon dates from the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer cemetery Khuzhir-Nuge XIV, Lake Baikal, Siberia

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1481-1500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Weber ◽  
Hugh G. McKenzie ◽  
Roelf Beukens ◽  
Olga I. Goriunova
Keyword(s):  
Lake Baikal ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene

Genic and Chromosomal Differentiation in Pocket Gophers of the Geomys bursarius Group

Evolution ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert K. Selander ◽  
Donald W. Kaufman ◽  
Robert J. Baker ◽  
Stephen L. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Pocket Gophers ◽  
Chromosomal Differentiation ◽  
Geomys Bursarius

scholarly journals Three distinct Holocene intervals of stalagmite deposition and nondeposition revealed in NW Madagascar, and their paleoclimate implications

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1771-1790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ny Riavo Gilbertinie Voarintsoa ◽  
Loren Bruce Railsback ◽  
George Albert Brook ◽  
Lixin Wang ◽  
Gayatri Kathayat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Intertropical Convergence Zone ◽  
Convergence Zone ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Resolution Data

Abstract. Petrographic features, mineralogy, and stable isotopes from two stalagmites, ANJB-2 and MAJ-5, respectively from Anjohibe and Anjokipoty caves, allow distinction of three intervals of the Holocene in NW Madagascar. The Malagasy early Holocene (between ca. 9.8 and 7.8 ka) and late Holocene (after ca. 1.6 ka) intervals (MEHI and MLHI, respectively) record evidence of stalagmite deposition. The Malagasy middle Holocene interval (MMHI, between ca. 7.8 and 1.6 ka) is marked by a depositional hiatus of ca. 6500 years. Deposition of these stalagmites indicates that the two caves were sufficiently supplied with water to allow stalagmite formation. This suggests that the MEHI and MLHI intervals may have been comparatively wet in NW Madagascar. In contrast, the long-term depositional hiatus during the MMHI implies it was relatively drier than the MEHI and the MLHI. The alternating wet–dry–wet conditions during the Holocene may have been linked to the long-term migrations of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). When the ITCZ's mean position is farther south, NW Madagascar experiences wetter conditions, such as during the MEHI and MLHI, and when it moves north, NW Madagascar climate becomes drier, such as during the MMHI. A similar wet–dry–wet succession during the Holocene has been reported in neighboring locations, such as southeastern Africa. Beyond these three subdivisions, the records also suggest wet conditions around the cold 8.2 ka event, suggesting a causal relationship. However, additional Southern Hemisphere high-resolution data will be needed to confirm this.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Pocket Gopher Populations in Relation to Selected Environmental Factors in Pelican Valley, Yellowstone National Park

1979 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 133-137
Author(s):  
C. Youmans ◽  
R. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Yellowstone National Park ◽  
National Park ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Pocket Gopher ◽  
Pocket Gophers ◽  
Thomomys Talpoides ◽  
Ursus Arctos Horribilis

Several important environmental factors which affect the dynamics of pocket gopher populations have been identified: water content at peak snowpack and depth of snow in spring (Hansen and Ward, 1966; Reid, 1973); weather and Its influence on annual food supplies and cover (Howard and Childs, 1959); production of annual and perennial forbs (Keith et al., 1959; Tietjen et al., 1967); and ground water levels and snow depths (Ingles, 1949; Hansen, 1962). A need for specific information on pocket gophers in Pelican Valley, Yellowstone National Park arose from interest in interactions between grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) and northern pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides). Mealey (1975) and Graham (1978) suggested that pocket gophers and their caches may serve as seasonally important food items for grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park.

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