Late Glacial Early Holocene Research Articles

Lateglacial and early Holocene climatic oscillations on the western Svalbard margin, European Arctic

A multi proxy sediment core record on the continental margin off western Svalbard, European Arctic, reflects large climatic and oceanographic oscillations at the Lateglacial–early Holocene transition. Based on studies of planktonic foraminifera, their stable oxygen and carbon isotopic composition and ice rafted debris, we have reconstructed the last 14 cal. ka BP. The period 14–13.5 cal. ka BP was characterized by highly unstable climatic conditions. Short-lived episodes of warming alternated with meltwater pulses and enhanced iceberg rafting. This period correlates to a regional warming of the northern North Atlantic. An overall decrease in meltwater took place during the deglaciation (14–10.8 cal. ka BP). The late Younger Dryas and subsequent transition into the early Holocene is characterized by a reduced flux of planktonic foraminifera and increased iceberg rafting. A major warming took place from 10.8 to 9.7 cal. ka BP, the influence of meltwater ceased and the flux of warm Atlantic Water increased. From 9.7 to 8.8 cal. ka BP, the western Svalbard margin surface waters were significantly warmer than today. This warm period, the thermal maximum, was followed by an abrupt cooling at 8.8. cal. ka BP, caused by an increased influence of Arctic Water from the Arctic Ocean. The results document that the European Arctic was very sensitive to climatic and oceanographic changes at the end of the last glacial and during the Holocene.

Tree-Ring Records of Near-Younger Dryas Time in Central North America—Preliminary Results from the Lincoln Quarry Site, Central Illinois, Usa

The abrupt millennial-scale changes associated with the Younger Dryas (YD) event (“chronozone”) near the dawn of the Holocene are at least hemispheric, if not global, in extent. Evidence for the YD cold excursion is abundant in Europe but fairly meager in central North America. We are engaged in an investigation of high-resolution environmental changes in mid-North America over several millennia (about 10,000 to 14,000 BP) during the Late Glacial–Early Holocene transition, including the YD interval. Several sites containing logs or stumps have been identified and we are in the process of initial sampling or re-sampling them for this project. Here, we report on a site in central Illinois containing a deposit of logs initially thought to be of YD age preserved in alluvial sands. The assemblage of wood represents hardwood (angiosperm) trees, and the ring-width characteristics are favorable to developing formal tree-ring chronologies. However, 4 new radiocarbon dates indicate deposition of wood may have taken place over at least 8000 14C yr (6000–14,000 BP). This complicates the effort to develop a single floating chronology of several hundred years at this site, but it may provide wood from a restricted region over a long period of time from which to develop a sequence of floating chronologies, the timing of deposition and preservation of which could be related to paleoclimatic events and conditions.

Quaternary pollen analysis: recent progress in palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology

During the last decade Quaternary pollen analysis has developed towards improved pollen-taxonomical precision, automated pollen identification and more rigorous definition of pollen assemblage zones. There have been significant efforts to model the spatial representation of pollen records in lake sediments which is important for more precise interpretation of the pollen records in terms of past vegetation patterns. We review the difficulties in matching modelled post-glacial plant migration patterns with pollen-based palaeorecords and discuss the potential of DNA analysis of pollen to investigate the ancestry and past migration pathways of the plants. In population ecology there has been an acceleration of the widely advocated conceptual advance of pollen-analytical research from vaguely defined ‘environmental reconstructions’ towards investigating more precisely defined ecological problems aligned with the current ecological theories. Examples of such research have included an increasing number of investigations about the ecological impacts of past disturbances, often integrating pollen records with other palaeoecological data. Such an approach has also been applied to incorporate a time perspective to the questions of ecosystem restoration, nature conservation and forest management. New lines of research are the use of pollen analysis to study long-term patterns of vegetation diversity, such as the role of glacial-age vegetation fragmentation as a cause of Amazonian rain forest diversity, and to investigate links between pollen richness and past plant diversity. Palaeoclimatological use of pollen records has become more quantitative and has included more precise and rigorous testing of pollen-climate calibration models with modern climate data. These tests show the approximate nature of the models and warn against a too straightforward climatic interpretation of the small-scale variation in reconstructions. Pollen-based climate reconstructions over the Late Glacial-early Holocene boundary have indicated that pollen-stratigraphical changes have been rapid with no evidence for response lags. This does not rule out the possibility of migrational disequilibrium, however, as the rapid changes may be mostly due to nonmigrational responses of existing vegetation. It is therefore difficult to assess whether the amplitude of reconstructed climate change reflects real climate change. Other outstanding problems remain the obscure relationship of pollen production and climate, the role of human impact and other nonclimatic factors, and nonanalogue situations.

Late Quaternary vegetation history of Rough Canyon, south-central New Mexico, USA

South-central New Mexico, USA, at the junction of the Rocky Mountains, High Plains and Chihuahuan Desert, is one of the better known regions in the late Quaternary of North America. Plant macrofossils and pollen from a packrat midden series in Rough Canyon, New Mexico allows refinement of plant distributions and paleoclimates in this transitional area since full glacial times. From 17 000 to 12 000 14C yr BP, Pinus edulis– Juniperus scopulorum woodlands dominated limestone substrates between 1800 and 1490 m, with Pseudotsuga menziesii and other mixed-conifer species restricted to shady, north-facing slopes. Juniperus deppeana, the dominant juniper today above 2000 m in southern New Mexico, is conspicuously absent from glacial middens and must have been displaced south of the US–Mexico border. The minimum climatic conditions for P. edulis– J. scopulorum woodlands are ca 20% wetter and 3.5–5°C cooler (July mean maximum temperatures) than the modern climate at Rough Canyon. Holocene warming/drying may have started as early as 12 000 14C yr BP with the extirpation of J. scopulorum from Rough Canyon, and was completed by at least 10 540 14C yr BP. The record for arrivals of some desert species is confounded by traces of pollen and macrofossils in some of the glacial middens, which could signify either earliest occurrence or temporal mixing (contamination) of assemblages. AMS 14C dating can discriminate between early arrival and contamination in midden macrofossils but not in pollen. AMS dates show that Choisya dumosa, presently near its northern (cold) limits at Rough Canyon, endured late glacial winters, possibly as clonal populations. Some Larrea tridentata leaves and pollen occur in middens dominated by conifers and oaks no longer at the site; an AMS date of 3205 14C yr BP on Larrea leaves from one midden indicates contamination. Evidence for some macrofossil contamination, however, does not rule out the possibility that pollen of desert elements (e.g. Larrea, Prosopis) in late glacial–early Holocene middens indicates their presence in the Tularosa Basin, well ahead of their local appearance in Rough Canyon. Finally, the increasing dominance of desert elements after 5000 14C yr BP in the Rough Canyon series and elsewhere in the northern Chihuahuan Desert could reflect slow, postglacial migration from the south and/or progressive encroachment with gradual stripping of soils formed during the last glacial period.

AMS Radiocarbon Measurements from the Swedish Varved Clays

The Swedish varve chronology, or Swedish Time Scale, is an annual chronology based upon the successive correlation of more than 1000 varve-thickness diagrams. The Late Glacial-Early Holocene varved clays were deposited as glaciolacustrine sediments in the Baltic Sea during the recession of the Scandinavian ice sheet. Formation of varved clays continued throughout the Holocene and is still going on in the estuary of River ångermanälven in northern Sweden. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon measurements, which have been performed on terrestrial plant macrofossils extracted from the varved clays, show—in comparison with other annual chronologies—that several hundreds of varve years are missing in the varve chronology. These findings are supported by, among others, pollen stratigraphic investigations on time-equivalent varve year intervals. If an effort were undertaken to evaluate the erroneous parts, the Swedish Time Scale would have the potential of becoming a continuous annual chronology.

Palaeoenvironmental conditions during the early peopling of Southernmost South America (Late Glacial-Early Holocene, 14-8 ka B.P.)

Environmental conditions in Southernmost South America (the Patagonian Andes and the extra-Andean plains) during the early peopling of the region in Late Glacial/Early Holocene times are herein described. Different glacial advances or stabilization phases in valley glaciers occurred several millennia after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), as a consequence of regional cold climatic episodes. According to Clapperton (1993), two advances during the Late Glacial took place, ca. 15-14 14 C ka and 12-10 14 C ka B.P. A cold event during this last period, probably correlative with the “Younger Dryas” episode in the Northern Hemisphere, has been observed in the palynological record. A tundra environment dominated until ca. 13-10 14 C ka B.P.; afterwards, a gramineous steppe with forest refuges developed. The transition steppe-forest lasted to the Middle Holocene, when the Nothofagus forest took over. The arrival of man in Southernmost South America (ca. 13 14 C ka B.P. or even before) probably took place while glaciers were still present in most Andean valleys, sea level was much lower than today, and tundra environments dominated the extra-Andean plains. Moreover, peopling in the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego would have occurred not later than 11.8 14 C ka B.P., when the present Magellan Straits valley was still occupied by a meltwater discharge, braided stream, fed by the receding “Magellan Glacier”.

Vegetation dynamics in central Africa since 18,000 yr BP: pollen records from the interlacustrine highlands of Burundi, Rwanda and western Uganda

A standardized analysis of palaeoecological data, in the form of six pollen sequences and forty‐ four radiocarbon ages, has permitted a region‐wide reconstruction of Late Quaternary vegetation dynamics for the interlacustrine highlands of central Africa.A landscape widely dominated by ericaceous scrub and grasslands, but also supporting sparse patches of open‐canopied montane forest, possibly in those areas with a topography most favourable to the growth of trees, is indicated for the last glacial maximum of 18,000 yr bp. Major expansions in the extent of upper altitudinal forms of montane forest occurred from around 12,500 yr bp, while lower moist montane forest—the expected climax for much of the region today—did not become prominent until 11,000 yr bp to 10,000 yr bp. From the palaeoecological evidence at least, it appears that the major east Central forest refuge, proposed by some workers on the basis of current species’ distribution patterns, did not extend to the eastern flanks of the Albertine Rift.A late glacial–early Holocene transition is only fully chronicled in two of the sites. However, it appears that the expansion of lower montane forest had a time‐transgressive pattern across the region, and was not simply from low to high altitude. The composition of forests during the early Holocene appears to have been different to that in the later stages of the present interglacial, as taxa presently associated with wetter and/or more open forest types were much more common. Pollen data also indicate that higher altitude parts of the interlacustrine highlands were more attractive to the earliest (possibly Bantu‐speaking) farmers and metal‐workers. There is evidence of wide‐spread forest clearance around the beginning of the present millennium, possibly as a result of substantial changes in socio‐economic conditions, and patterns of settlement, associated with the onset of the Late Iron Age.

Vegetation, climate, and fire during the late‐glacial–Holocene transition at Spruce Pond, Hudson Highlands, southeastern New York, USA

Pollen, plant macrofossil, and charcoal records from Spruce Pond (41°14′22″N, 74°12′15″W), southeastern New York, USA dated by AMS provide details about late-glacial–early Holocene vegetation development in the Hudson Highlands from >12410 to 9750 14C yr BP. Prior to 12410 yr BP, vegetation was apparently open, dominated by herbs and shrubs (Cyperaceae, Gramineae, Tubuliflorae, Salix, Alnus, Betula), possibly with scattered trees (Picea and Pinus). However, Picea macrofossils are not found until 12410 yr BP. Development of a temperature deciduous–boreal-coniferous forest featuring Quercus, Fraxinus, Ostrya/Carpinus, Pinus, Picea, and Abies occurs between 12410 and 11140 yr BP. A return of predominantly boreal forest taxa between 11140 and 10230 yr BP is interpreted as an expression of the Younger Dryas cooling event. Holocene warming at 10230 yr BP is signalled by arrival of Pinus strobus, coincident with expansion of Quercus-dominated forest. Fire activity, as inferred from charcoal influx, appears to have increased as woodland developed after 12410 yr BP. Two charcoal influx peaks occur during Younger Dryas time. Early Holocene fire activity was relatively high but decreased for approximately 100 yr prior to the establishment of Tsuga canadensis in the forest at 9750 yr BP. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Vegetation, climate, and fire during the late-glacial–Holocene transition at Spruce Pond, Hudson Highlands, southeastern New York, USA

Pollen, plant macrofossil, and charcoal records from Spruce Pond (41°14′22″N, 74°12′15″W), southeastern New York, USA dated by AMS provide details about late-glacial–early Holocene vegetation development in the Hudson Highlands from >12410 to 9750 14C yr BP. Prior to 12410 yr BP, vegetation was apparently open, dominated by herbs and shrubs (Cyperaceae, Gramineae, Tubuliflorae, Salix, Alnus, Betula), possibly with scattered trees (Picea and Pinus). However, Picea macrofossils are not found until 12410 yr BP. Development of a temperature deciduous–boreal-coniferous forest featuring Quercus, Fraxinus, Ostrya/Carpinus, Pinus, Picea, and Abies occurs between 12410 and 11140 yr BP. A return of predominantly boreal forest taxa between 11140 and 10230 yr BP is interpreted as an expression of the Younger Dryas cooling event. Holocene warming at 10230 yr BP is signalled by arrival of Pinus strobus, coincident with expansion of Quercus-dominated forest. Fire activity, as inferred from charcoal influx, appears to have increased as woodland developed after 12410 yr BP. Two charcoal influx peaks occur during Younger Dryas time. Early Holocene fire activity was relatively high but decreased for approximately 100 yr prior to the establishment of Tsuga canadensis in the forest at 9750 yr BP. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Holocene closing of the ‘ice-free’ corridor: A biogeographical perspective

Biogeographical corridors are continuous areas of similar habitat that connect two biogeographical regions and allow the migration of fauna and flora. Examples of Quaternary faunal radiation between the Nearctic and Palearctic biogeographic regions and between Beringia and the Great Plains indicate that the ‘ice-free’ corridor region of western Canada must have been such a route for grazing animals. Today, boreal forest and extensive peatlands in the ice-free corridor region separate the open vegetation of the grasslands and arctic tundra. However, it is likely that open vegetation existed between Beringia and the plains, creating a biogeographic corridor during some Pleistocene glacial stages and during glacial non-glacial transitions such as the Late Glacial-Early Holocene. Between 12,000 and 10,000 BP the corridor supported a herb and shrub dominated vegetation that included Populus trees and probably reflected a climate that was relatively warm in the summer and dry. Vertebrate paleontological evidence indicates that the corridor vegetation supported grazing fauna. The most recent closing of the biogeographic corridor occurred with the development of the present boreal forest, which is dominated by plants unsuitable for grazing. The development of forest was initiated by a rapid northward spread of Picea glauca and P. mariana from the eastern plains and western mountains at 10,000 BP. By 8000 BP the Picea forests in the corridor were as dense as at present. The extensive peatlands that typify much of the corridor today developed by ∼5000 BP and provide an additional impediment for the movement of some grazing animals.

After the deluge: Mediterranean stagnation and sapropel formation

In an East Mediterranean marine core, the upper sapropel begins soon after the start of a global event—a very heavy precipitation which occurred in the equatorial latitudes during the late Glacial–early Holocene. This heavy precipitation in Africa, channelled by the Nile River across 35° of latitude, produced a low-salinity surface layer in the East Mediterranean. In this confined basin, with high bottom salinity, the steep salinity gradient stratified the water column. The stagnant bottom waters triggered the sapropel formation. Cretaceous sapropels in the tropical oceans may result from the same chain of events in warm, humid climates, with contrasting wet-and-dry seasonal rhythm.

Early Holocene (ca. 8000 to 5500 b.c.) Prehistoric Land/Resource Utilization Patterns in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta

Archaeological research in Waterton Lakes climate, physiography, vegetation, and ungulate National Park, Alberta, between 1967 and 1971 behavior, and hydroseres which structured the located 12 archaeological sites dating in the more recent seasonal prehistoric settlement patinterval between ca. 8000 and 5500 B.C. Ten terns in the Park. The data suggest that a settleof these were tested and two excavated. The ment pattern characterized by seasonal use of location of these sites is examined in relation the various valley areas and resources was to the late glacial-early Holocene environmental established by ca. 6000 B.C. sequence, and various present-day variables