Mid-late Holocene lake levels and trophic states of a shallow lake from the southern Pampa plain, Argentina

Outcrops of buried soils on lake-plains and glacial headlands along Lake Michigan's eastern shore suggest that periodic dune-building has occurred there after relatively long (≥100 yr) periods of low sand supply. We located, described, and radiocarbon dated 75 such buried soils that crop out in 32 coastal dune fields beside the lake. We assume that peaks in probability distributions of calibrated 14C ages obtained from wood, charcoal, and other organic matter from buried A horizons approximate the time of soil burial by dunes. Plotted against a late Holocene lake-level curve for Lake Michigan, these peaks are closely associated with many ∼150-yr lake highstands previously inferred from beach ridge studies. Intervening periods of lower lake levels and relative sand starvation apparently permitted forestation and soil development at the sites we studied. While late Holocene lake-level change led to development and preservation of prominent foredunes along the southern and southwestern shores of Lake Michigan, the modern dune landscape of the eastern shore is dominated by perched dunes formed during ∼150-yr lake highstands over the past 1500 yr.

Download Full-text

Lake levels in a discontinuous permafrost landscape: Late Holocene variations inferred from sediment oxygen isotopes, Yukon Flats, Alaska

Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research ◽

10.1080/15230430.2018.1496565 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. e1496565 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lesleigh Anderson ◽

Bruce P. Finney ◽

Mark D. Shapley

Keyword(s):

Oxygen Isotopes ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Lake Levels ◽

Discontinuous Permafrost

Download Full-text

A Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of Elkwater Lake, Alberta

Géographie physique et Quaternaire ◽

10.7202/009111ar ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 56 (2-3) ◽

pp. 279-290 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Dion J. Wiseman ◽

Garry L. Running ◽

Andrea Freeman

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Alluvial Fan ◽

Water Levels ◽

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction ◽

Lake Levels ◽

Mass Wasting ◽

The West ◽

Digital Elevation ◽

Lake Formation ◽

Elevation Model

AbstractCores retrieved from two slump blocks at the west end of Elkwater Lake, Alberta were used to determine which of two mass wasting events was responsible for impounding the lake and to establish a maximum age of lake formation. A high resolution Digital Elevation Model of the study area was used to estimate the volume of material involved in each mass wasting event, recreate pre-slump topographic conditions, determine the probable extent and elevation of the lake at different periods in time, and evaluate the viability of alternative outlets. Results suggest that the lake formed no more than 9440 BP as a result of impoundment by the eastern slump block. The lake rose to its highest mid-Holocene elevation prior to 7245 BP, establishing an outlet through Feleski Creek 3.5 km northeast of the present shoreline. Lake levels then dropped during the comparatively dry Altithermal, concurrent with a period of rapid sediment influx and the development of the alluvial fan on which the Stampede site is located. As water levels rose during the late Holocene, and with the former outlet cut off by progradation of the alluvial fan, Elkwater Lake established its present outlet though Ross Creek.

Download Full-text

A ~6000 yr diatom record of mid- to late Holocene fluctuations in the level of Lago Wiñaymarca, Lake Titicaca (Peru/Bolivia)

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2017.49 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 88 (2) ◽

pp. 179-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

D. Marie Weide ◽

Sherilyn C. Fritz ◽

Christine A. Hastorf ◽

Maria C. Bruno ◽

Paul A. Baker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Shallow Lake ◽

Lake Level ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Species Abundance ◽

Freshwater Species ◽

Diatom Species ◽

Deep Lake ◽

Lake Titicaca ◽

Southern Basin ◽

Species Abundance Data

AbstractA multidecadal-scale lake-level reconstruction for Lago Wiñaymarca, the southern basin of Lake Titicaca, has been generated from diatom species abundance data. These data suggest that ~6500 cal yr BP Lago Wiñaymarca was dry, as indicated by a sediment unconformity. At ~4400 cal yr BP, the basin began to fill, as indicated by the dominance of shallow epiphytic species. It remained somewhat saline with extensive wetlands and abundant aquatic plants until ~3800 cal yr BP, when epiphytic species were replaced by planktic saline-indifferent species, suggesting a saline shallow lake. Wiñaymarca remained a relatively shallow lake that fluctuated on a multidecadal scale until ~1250 cal yr BP, when freshwater planktic species increased, suggesting a rise in lake level with a concomitant decrease in salinity. The lake became gradually fresher, dominated by deep, freshwater species from ~850 cal yr BP. By ~80 cal yr BP, saline-tolerant species were rare, and the lake was dominated by freshwater planktic diatoms, resembling the fresh and deep lake of today. These results reveal a more dynamic and chronologically specific record of lake-level fluctuations and associated ecological conditions that provide important new data for paleoclimatologists and archaeologists, to better understand human-environmental dynamics during the mid- to late Holocene.

Download Full-text

Late-Holocene Indian summer monsoon variability revealed from a 3300-year-long lake sediment record from Nir’pa Co, southeastern Tibet

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683616670220 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 541-552 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Broxton W Bird ◽

Yanbin Lei ◽

Melanie Perello ◽

Pratigya J Polissar ◽

Tandong Yao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Lake Sediment ◽

Summer Monsoon ◽

Indian Summer Monsoon ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Ice Cores ◽

Tropical Pacific ◽

Ice Age ◽

Lake Levels ◽

The Tropical Pacific

Sedimentological and geochemical results from Nir’pa Co, an alpine lake on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, detail late-Holocene Indian summer monsoon (ISM) hydroclimate during the last 3300 years. Constrained by modern calibration, elevated silt and lithics and low sand and clay between 3.3 and 2.4 ka and 1.3 ka and the present indicate two pluvial phases with lake levels near their current overflow elevation. Between 2.4 and 1.3 ka, a sharp increase in sand and corresponding decrease in lithics and silt suggest drier conditions and lower lake levels at Nir’pa Co. Hydroclimate expressions in the sedimentological proxies during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) are not statistically significant, suggesting that these events were minor compared to the millennial scale variability on which they were superimposed. However, decreasing sand and increasing lithics and silt during the MCA between 950 and 800 cal. yr BP may suggest briefly wetter conditions, while increasing sand and reduced lithics and silt from 500 to 200 cal. yr BP suggest potentially drier conditions during the LIA. Similarities with regional records from lake sediment and ice cores and speleothem records from the central and eastern Tibetan Plateau, India, and the Arabian Sea, suggest generally coherent late-Holocene ISM variability in these regions. Increased late-Holocene ISM intensity occurred during times when Tibetan Plateau surface air temperatures were warmer, Indo-Pacific sea surface temperatures were elevated, and the tropical Pacific was in a La Niña–like mean state. Conversely, aridity between 2.4 and 1.3 ka occurred in concert with cooling on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Indo-Pacific with more El Niño–like conditions in the tropical Pacific. Differences with western Tibetan records may reflect a weakened ISM and stronger westerlies in this region during the late-Holocene.

Download Full-text

Basin-specific records of lake oligotrophication during the middle-to-late Holocene in boreal northeast Ontario, Canada

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/09596836211025972 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095968362110259

Author(s):

Cale AC Gushulak ◽

Peter R Leavitt ◽

Brian F Cumming

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Sediment Cores ◽

Additive Model ◽

Boreal Lakes ◽

Central Basin ◽

Lake Levels ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Fossil Pigments ◽

Green Lake

Descriptions of regional climate expression require data from multiple lakes, yet little is known of how variation in records within morphometrically complex lakes may affect interpretations. In northeast Ontario (Canada), this issue was addressed using records of pollen, pigments, and diatoms in three sediment cores from two small boreal lakes spanning the last ~6000 years. Pollen analysis suggested warm conditions between ~6000 and ~4000 cal yr BP, coherent with previous assessments from boreal eastern Ontario and western Quebec. Analysis of phototrophic communities from fossil pigments and diatom valves suggested relatively eutrophic conditions with lower lake-levels during this interval. Generalized additive model trends identified significant regional changes in pollen assemblages and declines in pigment concentrations after ~4000 cal yr BP consistent with cooler and wetter climate conditions that resulted in regional lake oligotrophication and increased lake levels during the late-Holocene. Despite contemporaneous changes in pollen and pigment biomarkers across lakes, cores collected from adjacent basins of the same lake (Green Lake) did not show similar trends in fossil pigments likely reflecting preferential deposition of clay-rich allochthonous material in the deeper central basin and suggesting that regional signals in climate may be complicated by lake- or basin-specific catchment processes.

Download Full-text

Soil genesis on a chronosequence, Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario

Canadian Journal of Soil Science ◽

10.4141/cjss95-009 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 75 (1) ◽

pp. 63-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

A. J. VandenBygaart ◽

R. Protz

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Lake Huron ◽

Mean Annual Precipitation ◽

New Materials ◽

Carbonate Weathering ◽

Lake Levels ◽

Soil Genesis ◽

Soil Weathering ◽

Soil Age ◽

Provincial Park

Soils on a late Holocene dune chronosequence were studied along Lake Huron at Pinery Provincial Park, in southwestern Ontario. Progressive exposure of new materials, associated with declining lake levels, has allowed the development of soils in a sequential manner from the shoreline (approximately time zero) to about 2.3 km inland. Six soil pits were excavated and sampled in narrow depth increments along a transect ranging in estimated age from 100 to 4700 yr B.P. Chronofunctions were formulated based on pedogenic properties in order to evaluate the rates and pathways of soil genesis in southern Ontario. The soils graded from an Orthic Regosol near the shore to an Eluviated Dystric Brunisol to 2.3 km inland. The increasing thickness of the solum and darker chroma in the B horizons were the most obvious morphological indications of a progression in soil weathering. Linear chronofunctions of increasing total silt and clay contents with soil age suggest that physical breakdown of sand particles to silt and clay may be occurring. Total organic matter in the profiles increases logarithmically with soil age with a rapid increase in the first 2000 yr or so. The depth of CaCO3 leaching increased linearly with increasing soil age. Data indicate that mean annual precipitation may be the most important influence on the rates of carbonate weathering. Soil pH decreases linearly with soil age in the first 2900 yr. However, vegetative variations appear to influence the pH beyond 2900 yr of soil development. Depth to, and thickness of, the B horizons also increased linearly with soil age. Key words: CaCO3 weathering, solum thickness, clay accumulation, dune chronosequence

Download Full-text

Lake Levels since about 40,000 Years Ago at Lake Chalco, near Mexico City

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1006/qres.1998.1969 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 69-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Margarita Caballero ◽

Beatriz Ortega Guerrero

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Susceptibility ◽

Mexico City ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Shallow Lake ◽

Lake Level ◽

Organic Content ◽

Lake Levels ◽

Saline Marsh ◽

Basin Of Mexico ◽

Major Eruption

Diatoms, magnetic susceptibility, organic content, and14C ages of sediments from a 26-m core suggest that Lake Chalco, in the southern part of the basin of Mexico, went through a series of major fluctuations during the late Pleistocene and the Holocene. Before ca. 39,00014C yr B.P. the lake was very deep (about 8–10 m), alkaline, and saline. It then became shallow (<2 m) for most of the time between ca. 39,000 and 22,500 yr B.P. Chalco deepened to about 4–5 m about the time of a major eruption of nearby Popocatepetl volcano ca. 22,000 yr B.P. The lake remained relatively deep and fresh until ca. 18,500 yr B.P., when lower levels and alternating acidic to freshwater conditions were established. After 14,500 yr B.P. lake level rose slightly, but by ca. 10,000 yr B.P. Chalco became very shallow (<2 m), remaining as a low, alkaline saline marsh until ca. 6000 yr B.P. This period corresponds with the Playa cultural phase, during which the earliest human settlements in the basin were established. After ca. 6000 yr B.P. Chalco became a fresh to slightly alkaline shallow lake a few meters deep.

Download Full-text